Peter Butera addresses an audience at Saturday’s Diversity and Equality discussion at the West Pittston Little League.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
WEST PITTSTON — Diversity, equality and inclusion in the Wyoming Area community drew a big crowd to the West Pittston Little League on Saturday, as a host of guest speakers shared their experiences and offered some ideas for change in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests of racism and police brutality in America.
The event, which organizer Peter Butera hopes will be the first of many, was something that came together with cooperation from all over the community.
“I reached out to a lot of people, at first just to see if I should do this at all,” Butera said. “Then I reached out to get people to speak, and the Little League gave us this space.”
Butera is a 21-year-old college student and West Pittston resident. He opened the remarks by sharing some of his own experiences witnessing casual, almost inadvertent racism around him.
“A lot of people don’t even think about it, and they don’t always say things maliciously,” Butera said. “I saw a lot of those little things, and no one really said anything about them.”
The message of the afternoon was present in the audience that was present, as well as in the list of speakers. White, black, male, female, young and old — people from all walks of life and all different situations showed up on Saturday and, as guest speaker Julian Campenni put it, “chose not to be silent.”
Campenni is a Wyoming Area graduate, played college football at the University of Connecticut and currently coaches at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He quoted Dr. Martin Luther King in his opening remarks: “a time comes when silence is betrayal.”
His remarks closed the speaking portion of the diversity session, while 2014 Wyoming Area graduate Farrad Condry opened them.
Condry moved from New Jersey when he was younger, and “was welcomed with open arms.” He talked about how sports and community events helped him connect with people of many different diverse cultural backgrounds.
“We must continue to give open arms to help our community build and grow as a whole,” Condry said.
Other speakers included current Wyoming Area student Gianna Colella, recent grads Bobby Acacio, Zipporah Fillmore and Abby Kolessar, and two members of the Luzerne County Council in Kendra Radle and Matthew Vough.
Vough, who was the lone non-Wyoming Area graduate on the list but is a West Pittston native, joked that he “was never at an event where I was the oldest speaker here.”
Radle brought up the difference between equality and equity.
“Equality is giving everyone here a new pair of shoes,” Radle said. “Equity is giving everyone here a new pair of shoes that actually fits them.”
The event was filmed and will be posted on Facebook for anyone that couldn’t attend, according to Butera.
After remarks were wrapped up, the speakers broke off so that the audience could discuss their own ideas and experiences directly with them.
“It’s so important to stand up and share your own stories and ideas,” Butera said. “We’ve all got to be part of change.”
