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Whether rain or heat, Mt. Lebanon group prepares for annual summer event

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 3 min read
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In advance of hosting a couple of outdoor events at their Mt. Lebanon home, Kory and Jeanne Hoeft have secured a sufficiently sized tent.

“The last two years have been thunderstorms,” Jeanne said about the weather conditions for previous soirees. “And this year, I ‘guaran-darn-tee’ you that the sun will be shining.”

As often happens to folks who buy snow blowers and then go through a winter with no white stuff, she is anticipating blue skies for Mt. Lebanon Council of Republican Women’s annual summer wine and cheese party, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 20 at 986 Summer Place.

Fellow council member Sally Morrison, though, begs to differ.

“That’s on a Thursday,” she pointed out. “My Rotary group does a farmers market, and, honestly, it rains every Thursday.”

That’s not exactly true for the Rotary Club of Upper St. Clair-Bethel Park (Breakfast)’s weekly seasonal event on Route 19, across the street from Westminster Presbyterian Church.

But no matter what the state of precipitation – or heat and humidity, for that matter – the Hoefts are prepared for the wine and cheese party, and also for a benefit event they are hosting earlier the same week.

“We enjoy gardening and we are blessed with a beautiful garden, and we’re happy to have our friends and neighbors from across the South Hills come and enjoy it with us,” Jeanne said.

The council’s summer event started about a decade ago as an ice cream social, with former Pennsylvania Gov. Richard Thornburgh as the first special guests.

This year, four candidates on the November ballot for federal and state offices will be present to give brief talks and provide the opportunity for those in attendance to chat with them on a personal basis.

The party’s original attraction – “the ice cream always melted,” according to Jeanne – eventually was supplanted, even though some council members would have preferred to continue to have the frozen confection along with the cheese and wine.

As for the venue, the Hoefts live in a 1930s-era Cape Cod with a spacious yard to allow for good-sized gatherings.

“The committee has always been kind enough to ask me, what’s our maximum occupancy?” Jeanne said, referencing the group of women who organize the event. “And I say, ‘The more, the merrier.'”

There will be plenty of room for social distancing, she noted, and disposable masks are available for guests.

Of particular note at the Hoeft home is a formal English garden established about seven decades ago by the previous owners.

It had been left untended for about a year prior to Kory and Jeanne taking residence.

“We cleaned everything up, brought everything back, filled in the holes that needed to be filled,” she recalled, and the result drew praise from neighbors who had known the folks who lived there before.

As one of them told the Hoefts, “I just want you to know that Mr. and Mrs. Duff would be thrilled by what you’ve done in how you’ve maintained the house. They would be so happy.”

For those planning to attend the wine and cheese party, RSVP by Aug. 15 to Eileen McNichol, 412-388-1575 or mcnichol42@verizon.net.

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