Joe Zelenak honored with Mt. Pleasant Citizen of the Year award

Mt. Pleasant VFW Commander Joe Zelenak was invited to speak at a recent mid-week luncheon meeting of the Mt. Pleasant Rotary Club.

Instead of telling the service organization about his veterans group, Zelenak learned he was chosen as the Rotary club’s 2023 Citizen of the Year.

“We all said the pledge of allegiance, and then Dale Walker broke the news to me,” said Zelenak. “They tricked me.”

“We sneak them into the Rotary meeting, and they’re shocked to hear it,” Walker said of the annual citizen honorees. Walker leads the committee that oversees the award, which has been bestowed since 1969 on someone who is active in the Mt. Pleasant area, though not necessarily a local resident.

The honored citizen also is recognized at a banquet, held recently at Nino’s Restaurant in Mt. Pleasant Township.

There was a recent gap of two years in the award presentations, during the height of the covid pandemic, and an earlier one between 2007, the last year the honor was given by the town’s former Elks organization, and 2010, when the tradition was resumed by the Rotary club.

“We didn’t want to see it go, so we picked it up,” Walker said of the citizen award. “We’re looking for someone who does charitable works that benefit the community.”

The late Jeff Landy, former Mt. Pleasant Borough manager, was the 2022 honoree.

Walker noted, “No one is ever chosen for their occupation. It has to be something that reaches out and touches other people. They’re not doing it for notoriety, they’re doing it because they enjoy doing it.”

Zelenak is credited with leading revitalization of the VFW post, which has nearly 200 members. It donated $5,000 to the local fire department this year and sponsors local youth sports and a local Boy Scout troop.

Zelenak also is a leading member of a local joint military council that oversees Mt. Pleasant’s Veterans Park.

About eight years ago, the VFW post purchased the building on Mt. Pleasant’s West Main Street where it previously has been meeting and has developed its social hall as a center for varied activities.

“We now use it a lot more,” Zelenak said. “We’ve had several bands in. We also do Christmas and Easter parties for kids and a Mother’s Day breakfast.”

The organization also is involved in taking applications from family members of veterans, to have banners honoring their loved ones displayed along Mt. Pleasant streets. About 40 have been prepared for this year’s display during warmer months.

Zelenak said the VFW post’s resurgence and growing outreach is made possible by the assistance of his fellow officers and an active group of auxiliary members and volunteers.

“At one time, we had maybe eight members in the auxiliary,” he said. “Now we have more than 70. They do a lot to help us.

“Our social members have stepped up and helped us anytime we need something. We have a great group of volunteers. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to do near as much as we do.”

Zelenak has had more time to devote to the VFW and its causes since retiring in 2014 as a supervisor with the Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau.

His interest in the welfare of children is a thread that has run throughout different phases of his life.

His initial 20-year Air Force career included a stint at a base in North Carolina.

“I always wanted to work with kids,” he said. “I worked as a volunteer with a youth center on the base. We would take kids on ski trips, and I coached baseball, football and basketball.”

As he meets with the VFW auxiliary’s entertainment committee, he said, “We are looking to do something else coming up for the kids.”

A plaque listing all of the Citizen of the Year honorees through the decades is displayed in a hallway adjoining the dining area of Mt. Pleasant’s Main Street Deli and Cafe.