KEYSTONE CLIPS April was a month for awareness

Just how many national awareness or education designations can one month have?
Various special interest and health groups have been successful in getting a month earmarked for their particular causes, but there are only 12 months, and that's not enough for everybody to have their own. They have to share.
For example, April had at least three designations. It was National Autism Awareness Month, National Stress Awareness Month and National Humor Month.
May has more. It is National Hispanic History Month, National High Blood Pressure Education Month, Allergy & amp; Asthma Awareness Month, National Arthritis Month and National Stroke Awareness Month.
Rainfall catch-up
The Shenango Valley continues to catch up on its rainfall.
Total annual rainfall for 2001 reached only 34.71 inches, well below the annual average of 39.35 inches, according to statistics kept by the Shenango Valley Division of Consumers Pennsylvania Water Co.
This year, April was more damp than normal, showing an accumulation of 4.95 inches of rainfall compared with the average of 3.91 inches for that month.
That puts the total so far this year at 13.12 inches, more than 2 inches above the normal of 10.98 inches for the first four months of the year.
Normal is calculated as the average of 22 years of data.
Volunteers clean up
Volunteers recently picked up seven tons of trash and 53 tires from an illegal dumping site on Papermill Road in New Castle.
The illegal dump site was encroaching on Neshannock Creek, a popular fishing spot.
A total of 47 people from PA CleanWays of Lawrence County and students from the Laurel School District's Conservation Club and the New Castle High School's International Club picked up the trash.
The group later planted 100 trees at Camp Elliot, a Girl Scout Camp near Volant.
PA CleanWays is an organization dedicated to keeping local waterways clean and to beautification projects.
To volunteer, visit its Web site at www.pacleanways.org/lawrence.html or call (724) 654-6119.
XContributors: Harold Gwin of The Vindicator Sharon Bureau and Laure Cioffi of the New Castle Bureau