Published July 21. 2026 08:15AM<\/p>\n
Valley Youth House celebrated its accomplishments, recognized inspiring youth and elected new leadership during its 2026 annual meeting held at Lehigh Country Club.<\/p>\n
Board members, staff and community partners gathered to review the agency\u2019s progress over the past year, approve new leadership and hear firsthand how Valley Youth House programs are helping young people achieve independence.<\/p>\n
The meeting included the election of the agency\u2019s Board of Directors officers, with Maura E. Topper, president and CEO of CrossAmerica Partners, elected board chair. Other officers elected were Adrienne Bonser, vice chair; John T. Yurconic, treasurer; and Scott A. Gray, secretary.<\/p>\n
For the Lehigh Valley Board of Governors, Anne Baum, founder of Vision Accomplished LLC, was elected chair, with Adam McMahon serving as vice chair. Several new members also joined the Lehigh Valley Board of Governors, including representatives from Air Products, Capital Blue Cross, Bethlehem Area School District, Jefferson, C.F. Martin & Co., Allentown School District, Victaulic and Service Electric Cable TV & Communications. The organization also recognized outgoing board leaders, including Kathryn M. Brown, outgoing chair of the Lehigh Valley Board of Governors.<\/p>\n
During the program, Valley Youth House leaders presented the agency\u2019s 2025 financial report, highlighted program outcomes and previewed several fundraising events planned for 2026, including the John E. Walson Jr. Memorial Golf & Pickleball Tournament, the Southeast Golf Tournament, the Central Golf Tournament and the Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s meeting theme, \u201cThe Road to Independence,\u201d reflected both the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary and Valley Youth House\u2019s mission of helping vulnerable young people build stable, independent lives. One of the meeting\u2019s highlights came as three youth participants \u2014 Angelize, Roseylee and Aniya \u2014 shared personal stories about overcoming challenges with support from Valley Youth House programs. The trio was presented with the agency\u2019s Mission Impact Award in recognition of their courage and achievements.<\/p>\n
Contributed article<\/p>\n
PRESS Photo courtesy of Valley Youth HouseNewly elected and outgoing Valley Youth House leaders gather during the agency\u2019s 2026 Annual Meeting at Lehigh Country Club in Allentown. Pictured, from left, are Thomas R. Harrington, president and executive director of Valley Youth House; Anne Baum, incoming Lehigh Valley Board of Governors chair and founder of Vision Accomplished LLC; state Reps. Mike Schlossberg and Peter Schweyer; Maura E. Topper, newly elected chair of the Valley Youth House Board of Directors and president and CEO of CrossAmerica Partners LP; and Kathryn M. Brown, outgoing chair of the Lehigh Valley Board of Governors and co-founder and senior wealth adviser at Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published July 21. 2026 08:15AM Valley Youth House celebrated its accomplishments, recognized inspiring youth and elected new leadership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-248538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}