A beloved late local musician and community activist, a long-time medical volunteer at the Little League World Series, a music educator, and several “Unsung Heroes” are among those to be honored at the Lycoming County Brotherhood Alliance banquet to be held May 7 at the Genetti Hotel.
The guest speaker is a crusader against the scourge of human trafficking, Korrin Monn-Gardner. She founded “Lantern Rescue,” whose purpose, according to its mission statement, is to “liberate victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.” Lantern Rescue works domestically and internationally to combat human trafficking through a unique approach centered on partnering with and mentoring local law enforcement in each region they serve. They aim to empower nations to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves and will continue to fight until all are free
Korrin is a local to Lycoming County. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Lycoming College. She then went on to receive a Graduate Certificate in International Relations from Harvard University Extension and a Juris Doctorate from Penn State University School of Law.
Prior to Lantern Rescue, Korrin worked as a Special Prosecutor for the Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office and as a Russian Linguist and Signals Intelligence Operator for the United States Marine Corps.
She now serves as a special prosecutor for Lycoming County, focusing on cases of child sex abuse material (CSAM) and human trafficking, providing no-cost legal support for these critical cases, and advocating for high sentences for crimes of CSAM and trafficking.
Korrin is also honored to be a member of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Trafficking Task Force. In September 2024, Korrin testified about the reality of human trafficking in Pennsylvania to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Republican Committee.
The late Loni Gamble and Dave Brumbaugh will be the recipients of this year’s William Pickelner Award.
Loni Gamble was an accomplished musician who played with the notable national group “The Stylistics,”
Loni had the opportunity to perform in several bands over the years, including Serenity, Introopadors, and Fresh Out the Box, just to name a few. Eventually, he formed the band Loni Gamble & Sound Cheque/Sugar & Spice, which toured throughout the country singing Motown jams and bringing joy to music lovers over the years.
But Loni’s heart held more than music. He was deeply committed to empowering and mentoring the youth of Williamsport. In 2002, he founded his first program for kids, the Kennedy King Youth Intervention and Development Project and Basketball League, a program aimed at providing support and structure for underprivileged youth. The program offered scholastic mentorship, gang prevention activities, and education. This initiative eventually evolved into the Community Alliance for Positive Progressive Action (CAPPA), an organization that touched countless lives over the past twenty years.
Loni also started the Young Gentleman (aka YGs) Performing Arts and Life Skills Project, a program designed to provide opportunities to young males through music and art. Soon after, he launched the Phenomenal Young Ladies Project, a self-esteem-building program for girls.
Sadly, Loni is no longer with us, but his legacy of dedicated service to others continues in the hearts of all he touched and served.
Like Loni, music had an all-important and consuming part of Dave Brumbaugh’s life. He got involved in local rock bands at an early age and found that it was a passion for him. He polished his musical skills at the Berklee School of Music, graduating Magna Cum Laude from there in 1984.
For the next decade, he performed with many artists, including Bo Diddley, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, and The Shirelles, played in local bands, and worked as a session guitarist. During that time, he started teaching guitar — not just for income but because he loved it. The more he taught, the more he realized it wasn’t just a job — it was something he was meant to do.
Focusing on teenagers and young adults, Dave developed a reputation as a teacher who challenged students and helped them unlock unexpected potential.
This led him to founding the Uptown Music Collective, which has been mentoring young, gifted musicians for 25 years.
Over the years, Dave has watched students go on to study at top music schools, build careers, and even return as teachers. Some pursued music professionally, while others applied the discipline and confidence they developed at the Collective to different fields. The true success of the Uptown Music Collective, however, isn’t in the musicians it produces — it’s in the empowered individuals it shapes.
Mike Ludwikowski is the winner of the Ray Keyes Sports Award. He is a medical fixture at the Little League World Series and has been the head athletic trainer for many years.
He is quite accomplished in the field of Sports Medicine, having started a Sports Medicine Outreach program in Columbus, Ohio, and being involved in several others when he returned to this area.
While in Columbus, Mike also started a non-profit summer educational day camp that he brought with him to Williamsport. The UPMC Student Athletic Training Workshop has successfully educated high school students in the profession of athletic training since 1990. Many of those students became athletic trainers, whom Mike hired and who still work for UPMC. The Student Athletic Training Workshop funding came from and is still supported by money raided in a golf tournament.
The winners of the Unsung Heroes Award are Rick Mason, Mary Jo Westbrook, Doug Alexander, and Chrissy Heinbach.
“Since 1957, the Lycoming County Brotherhood Alliance has held their annual banquet to do just that. Although we run a number of other programs throughout the year, such as sponsoring a Holocaust Museum trip and a National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg trip, both designed to educate and inspire young people to know and understand these tragic events and to be moved to forward the notion of “never again,” the Annual banquet is perhaps the most well known and much-anticipated event of the year for both members and our guests,” Lee Miller, President of the Board of the Lycoming County Brotherhood Alliance, told Webb Weekly.
He continued, “Perhaps the most unique awards to be presented at the banquet are our unsung Hero awards. These awards are relatively new, having just been presented beginning 5 years ago. The LCBA board strongly felt that individuals who toil endlessly under the radar and outside of their usual vocation to make the community a better place to live deserved to have their shining moment as well. The wonderful part of this award is that all the recipients were nominated by family, friends, or those they have touched in a very positive way, not expecting any recognition.”
