Dawna Joyce Richards Bates is most at home when she can apply her skills to help others.
When she wasn’t working at her alma mater — Greater Latrobe School District — teaching elementary students the importance of physical fitness or junior high girls the value of sportsmanship on the basketball court, she might be found organizing outdoor trips for youngsters, creating a quilt for a charity auction or providing support when the War on Terror came close to home, in Somerset County.
“I’m a behind-the-scenes type of person,” Bates said.
Nevertheless, on March 14 she’ll be in the spotlight, when she will be recognized as the district’s 2024 Alumnus of Distinction by the Greater Latrobe Partners in Education Foundation, at its Loyal & True Dinner. The award recognizes outstanding levels of professional achievements, as well as service to the school district and the community.
The Greater Latrobe Class of 1974, which is set to gather for its 50th reunion, also will be recognized at the dinner, according to district Superintendent Mike Porembka.
When Bates, 75, learned of the upcoming honor, she said, “I was shocked.”
But it’s not the first time the 1966 graduate and 2006 faculty retiree of Greater Latrobe has been accorded public appreciation for her efforts on behalf of students and of the larger community.
The school board previously honored the Unity resident for her 15 years of service as director of the annual three-day Sixth Grade Camp Outdoor Education Experience. It has been held most recently at Heritage Reservation, a Boy Scout camp near Farmington, where students can practice archery, complete stream studies and take kayak trips on a lake.
“It’s a great experience for the kids,” Bates said. “Many kids would never have that opportunity if it was not for the school district providing it. I continued being the director even after I retired.”
Senior high students assist at the camp.
Bates also has been recognized for outstanding volunteerism with the local American Red Cross chapter since 1970. She has served as a board member, a disaster shelter manager and a first aid/CPR instructor.
Bates continues to visit Greater Latrobe and Derry Area schools, providing the lifesaving training to personal assistants and optional training for students.
“I don’t believe kids should graduate unless they have it,” she said.
She additionally has won plaudits from the American Heart Association. Beginning in 1987, she led student teams that put on demonstrations of Double Dutch and other rope-jumping skills at schools in the region and at a state convention, eventually raising more than $500,000 for the association through its Jump Rope For Heart program.
The demonstration teams expanded from the elementary grades to also include junior high students who wanted to continue in the program.
“It was a fun activity,” said Bates. “The district allowed us 10 days a year and paid for the substitute for me as we went out putting on shows.”
A highlight for Bates and the students was appearing in a Jump Rope For Heart promotional commercial along with Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Robin Cole and Mark Singel, then Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor.
A graduate of Slippery Rock University, Bates initially taught health and physical education at the former Donora High School before teaching the same subject at Greater Latrobe, beginning in 1971. She was assigned to three elementary schools that are now defunct — Sixth Ward in Latrobe and Pleasant Unity and Northern Area in Unity Township — before moving to Mountain View Elementary.
“At Sixth Ward, there wasn’t a gym, so I taught in the hall,” she said. “You had to leave Pleasant Unity and get to Sixth Ward in 10 minutes to teach the next class. If a train was going through (the crossing), you were more than two minutes late.”
Bates later became the department head for health and physical education, in all grade levels at all Greater Latrobe schools.
“We did try to improve our programs,” she said. “There were different types of activities we were able to provide the kids so they would become interested in being physically fit.
“I pushed for the climbing wall at the high school, which most places didn’t have.”
‘My girls’
Bates initiated Greater Latrobe’s junior high girls basketball program in 1982, when she took on the job of coach. She continued in the role for 24 years.
“I enjoyed working with the girls and teaching them the respect for the sport and sportsmanship,” she said. “My girls knew if they fought with the other team, they were benched. They knew that, when the other team was shooting, we don’t make noise.
“I told them, ‘You’ll always be my girls.’ For Senior Night, I was always there for them, even though they were at the senior high school.”
Bates’ coaching approach has affected generations of players, directly and indirectly.
“Many of my players have come back to me and said, ‘I’m coaching now,’” Bates said. “They’d say, ‘I still do some of the things you showed us.’ That was important to me; that made my day.”
One of the standouts who formerly played under Bates is Jen Sobota. A 1999 high school graduate, Sobota scored 2,093 points for Greater Latrobe and also had more than 700 assists and 400 steals.
Sobota just wrapped up a 10-year stint coaching the girls at McLean High School in Virginia. After guiding her team to more than 100 wins, she has moved into the role of assistant director of student activities at the school.
Flight 93 volunteerism
Another effort that has ongoing importance for Bates is her volunteer work at the site near Shanksville, Somerset County, where the crew and passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 perished after they fought back against hijacking terrorists and the plane crashed in a field on Sept. 11, 2001.
With permission from officials at Greater Latrobe, Bates joined other Red Cross volunteers at Shanksville, staying for six days following the crash to provide support for first responders, investigators and family members of those who died.
“What (family members) needed the most was just people to listen to them, to give them hugs, which we have done all along,” Bates said.
A journalist photographed Bates participating in one of those hugs. Though her face isn’t visible, the image appeared with a Reader’s Digest story and also is displayed at the crash site’s visitor center.
“So, I’m there permanently,” said Bates, who serves as an ambassador at the site.
She added an angel figure to items that people have left at site and gave a copy to one of the family members. She also became a member of the nonprofit Friends of Flight 93 Memorial.
She’s helped with preparations for ceremonial occasions at the site and compiling input from the many visitors.
“I’ve scanned over 80,000 comment cards that people have left behind,” she said.
The Friends group also has planted trees at the memorial and raises money to help school groups cover the costs of traveling to the site, Bates said.
This past Sept. 11, according to Bates, each of the three Greater Latrobe elementary schools, at her suggestion, displayed flags in memory of those who died in the Shanksville plane crash.
As a result, she said, an official from the Flight 93 National Memorial visited the schools and invited Greater Latrobe students to perform two songs on the anniversary of the crash during this year’s observance at the memorial.
“For our kids to be there, to me, is a big deal,” said Bates. “That connection with Flight 93 is very important because Latrobe supported it the whole way along. Greater Latrobe has sent classrooms there to visit.”
In other patriotic pursuits, Bates organizes a Patriotic Interfaith Service every year, in conjunction with the Latrobe 4th of July Celebration, and she chose a patriotic design, reflecting each of the U.S. military service branches, when she crafted a quilt for charity. The bed covering fetched $8,000 in a gala auction benefiting the Red Cross.
“I still can’t believe it,” she said of the large sum that was bid. “That was my pride and joy.”
With the arrival of March, Bates will be reporting to the kitchen of her place of worship, Bethany Church of Latrobe, to help with hand-molding 350 0r m0re chocolate-covered fondant Easter eggs. She’s the third generation of her family that has taken part in the 80-year fundraising tradition.
In addition to receiving the alumnus award, she’s looking forward to reconnecting with former Greater Latrobe colleagues at the Loyal & True Dinner.
“I’m in the position to get this award because of them and the district administration,” she said.
Jeff Himler is a TribLive reporter covering Greater Latrobe, Ligonier Valley, Mt. Pleasant Area and Derry Area school districts and their communities. He also reports on transportation issues. A journalist for more than three decades, he enjoys delving into local history. He can be reached at jhimler@triblive.com.
