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Leads women from prisons into new lives

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

By Lillian Thomas, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Tracey Green met Mary Harwick in jail. Green was incarcerated for retail theft; Harwick was a volunteer teaching parenting classes.

	Mary Harwick, right, and Chaplin Ulli Clemm deliver Christmas gifts to female inmates at the Allegheny County Jail. Harwick conducts classes for incarcerated women. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette)

"She took a special interest in me, and not only me but my children on the outside," Green said. "She went around seeing that my kids were OK. She took them items they needed or liked to have. She spoke to me about parenting -- there was a lot of frustrations in my life; things seemed like they were out of control for me. She just gave you clear practical knowledge and information on how to set attainable goals."

It was a long process. Over 12 years, Green pulled her life together several times, only to have things disintegrate as she fell back into addiction and began to break the law to pay for her habit.

"During that time, Mary stuck with me, from jail, to halfway houses, in and out, to state pen, in and out. She would pick up my children, bring them to visit me at Muncy, Cambridge Springs [state prisons]. She personally invested in me, took money out of her pocket to help me."

Green finished her last incarceration, was ordained, and now works for Howard Hanna and in a ministry program with her husband, also an ordained minister.

"Every venture, everything in my life that was good, Mary was always there to help me."

Harwick has stuck with people all her life. She is a board member and longtime volunteer for Lydia's Place, a Downtown nonprofit that works with incarcerated women and their families. She's still in contact with four of the six women in her first prison class. Three of those have turned their lives around; she visits the fourth in prison.

For this type of dedication, Harwick is one of seven Community Champions being honored with a Jefferson Award, considered the Nobel Prize of volunteerism. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, AT&T Broadband and Eat'n Park, with help from the United Way, sponsor Community Champions, a program of the national Jefferson Awards.

The public and workers in the nonprofit community nominated the 47 people who became Community Champions, featured in public service ads last year in the PG and on AT&T cable stations.

From that group, judges chose the Jefferson Award recipients. They will receive a medallion and $1,000 for the nonprofit organization of their choice. At 7 p.m. Jan. 23, they will be honored at a reception and ceremony in Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland.

Harwick has built her life around working with troubled families. A slim, energetic woman of 67, she is a retired school counselor, a hard-core volunteer and a longtime runner.

Harwick was born and raised in Brookville, Jefferson County. She attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania, majoring in elementary education. She met another education major, John, and the two eloped sophomore year. They continued school together and had children ages 2, 3, and 4 when they earned their master's degrees in 1960.

They moved to Waynesburg, and after their youngest child started kindergarten, Harwick began working at the West Greene School District. After four years there, the family moved to New York, where she worked in Project Head Start.

They came to Pittsburgh in 1968, and Harwick first worked as a substitute, then as an elementary counselor in Keystone Oaks School District from 1969 until her retirement in 1994.

The Mt. Lebanon resident has been involved in track clubs and running nearly all her life. She has combined running and volunteering by chairing many fund-raising running events.

She began working with the Christian Women Volunteer Association, teaching Bible classes and aerobics to women in jail. The group became the Women's Christian Renewal, which started Lydia's Place as a project. Lydia's Place was later incorporated as a separate entity.

Harwick said that as a counselor, she noticed that many of the children with the worst problems had incarcerated parents.

"When the new jail opened, we asked if we could do parenting classes, and they said, 'yes, you design the curriculum,' so I did."

When she started, the jail brought the women into a room for the class. "They gave me a little buzzer that I was to hit if there were any problems. I made a show of saying, 'I won't need this' and put it in a drawer." That was the beginning of her close association with many women in the jail.

Lydia's Place added an intensive six-week "re-entry" class for women who were about to get out of jail. Harwick teaches the anger management part of that course.

She continues to work on the fund-raising end as well; over the years she has chaired many events. She and her husband are divorced but still work together on a number of events. She has three grown children and seven grandchildren.

She's always the hands-on, practical one, said Joann Cyganovich, executive director of Lydia's Place.

"Mary is part of the fabric of Lydia's Place," she said. "She is just involved in almost every aspect of what we do. She coordinates the Christmas party for all the women in jail. She gets all the gifts for the women -- there are 285 women there now. They get 70 dozen cookies and distribute them. She puts the gifts in envelopes -- they can't give wrapped presents at the jail -- and has her grandkids color them. We call her the Eveready Lady because she's always ready."

Vernetta Byrd, program coordinator for the family reunification enhancement effort at Lydia's Place, said that Harwick is effective because she builds relationships with people. And she's a priceless volunteer because "wherever there's a gap, Mary fills it in."

Harwick said that her drive toward service came early. "When I was a little girl, my grandmother would say: 'One life t'will soon be past, only what's done for God will last.'"

She took it to heart.

"I've always been intensely interested in helping," she said.

So much so that she never gives up on people.

"She just saw so much potential in me, and she kept nurturing it and nurturing it," said Green. "Regardless of when I failed, when I faltered. She never put me down, never condemned me. She just said, 'Well, God has a way of working things out.'"

The stumbles and faltering she sees are the hardest part of what she does, Harwick said.

A woman with whom she'd worked closely just returned to jail. "She attended all the classes and was a woman who'd made the biggest changes.

"Some of the women I thought were most ready for change have come back [to jail]. That's the one discouraging thing."

She's been told she cares too much: "My principal once told me, 'Your strength is your weakness.'

"But I think that's the only way to do it."

The FISA Foundation is donating $1,000 to Lydia's Place on behalf of Harwick.