Hello and welcome to Living In The Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Mr Rogers once said that his heroes are people who see others in need and respond.

Such are the people who serve Via of the Lehigh Valley, a nonprofit that supports folks with developmental disabilities.

And yet, if you ask the staff at Via, they'll tell you that the real heroes are the people they serve.

Recently Via dedicated its new life skill center in Allentown to one such hero.

On hand at the events was our own Grover Silcox, who is here now to tell us about it.

It sounds like a really wonderful event, Grover.

- It really was.

Via's new Kristi Hanawalt Life Skills Center honors the memory of a woman who had Down syndrome and came to the organization looking for employment help and wound up endearing herself to everyone there.

- It seems like she really made a difference in their lives.

- I think so.

It was inspiring to learn about Kristi, Via, and the organization's plans for the new life skills center.

- It sounds like a great event.

- It was.

And although Kristi passed in 2020, her memory lives on with everyone she touched.

As far as the organization, Via serves more than 1,000 children and adults throughout the Lehigh Valley.

The center, named after Kristi, will especially focus on serving young adults by helping them with life skills, employment and integrating within the community.

Via team members shared memories of Kristi, along with her family.

On this day, Via of the Lehigh Valley, the organization that serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, celebrated both a new life skills center in Allentown and the woman it's named after - Kristi Hanawalt.

In attendance were Kristi's family, friends and Via staff and supporters.

- Kristi, who had Down syndrome, was born on January 9th, 1969, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Kristi passed away in 2020, and she will forever be missed by her family and her friends.

- Kristi graduated from Vo Tech in 2000 and worked at a variety of jobs before coming to Via for help in finding new employment opportunities.

- Via helped her to get and retain the perfect job, working in the bagel bakery at Wegmans.

Kristi enjoyed this job because it was a "do the job well and the job is done" kind of task.

Kristi's success story was on Via billboards seen throughout the Lehigh Valley, and when she could no longer work, Kristi came to Via's adult training facility services located in Bethlehem.

- Via serves many older folks winding down their careers, but recently more younger individuals have been coming for support.

- There is a younger population of individuals who have disabilities who lack the attention to task needed for vocational position, or who might get overwhelmed out in the community.

And this site here is really going to help those individuals.

- Via's staff serves participants in myriad ways, from finding jobs and managing finances to doing laundry and grocery shopping, whatever support they need to succeed - on the job and in life overall.

- This couldn't be a better honor for Kristi than to have her name on this building, because I think what they are trying to achieve here, they achieved with our sister.

She always wanted to be a productive member of society.

She always wanted to be a social being.

And this team, this crew, this organization helped her achieve that.

- We're so overwhelmed and so thankful to Via and the whole family for today.

And like Scott said, if Kristi was here today, she'd be beaming with pride.

- Via served Kristi Hanawalt, and in return, Kristi inspired a whole new center to help others live their lives just as fully as she lived hers.

- We are so honored to name it after Kristi and we want to invite you all inside to see what's here.

We also, in honor of Kristi, got Wegmans' bagels for us!

So come inside, have coffee and bagels and come see yourself.

- This new center will offer participants a welcoming space for learning life skills, enjoying creative expression, cultivating friendships, even finding space to simply calm down, and much more.

- Grover, as you pointed out in your piece, it's amazing the impact Kristi had on not just one person but everybody.

- I think she especially serves as a great example of the courage and resilience of folks with developmental disabilities and how they overcome so many remarkable hurdles to live and succeed.

- Well said, Grover.

A wonderful story.

Thank you so much for sharing.

- You're welcome.

- And that'll do it for this edition of Living In The Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.