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Cheryl Kubitz, manager of Huntington Bank's Lysle Boulevard office, was asked to attend last Wednesday's city council meeting. She spent two hours readying a detailed financial report.

Little did she know that the request was just a ruse to lure her into council's lair. When she arrived for the city council meeting, Kubitz was told the report wasn't necessary.

Instead, the city honored her with a proclamation recognizing her as the winner of one of seven local Jefferson Awards for Public Service.

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Huntingdon Bank branch manager in the city for the past three years, Kubitz volunteers through Operation HOPE to teach students at Founders Hall Middle School and McKeesport Area High School about financial literacy --- skills such as balancing a checkbook, saving for future expenses and using credit wisely.

Often their questions help lead the conversation, she says.

"The feedback is wonderful," Kubitz says. "Sometimes I learn more than the children."

Besides her work with Operation HOPE, Kubitz has also volunteered with the Consortium for Public Education, the Teen LEED program at McKeesport YMCA, the Lions Club and the Highmark Caring Place, which counsels grieving families.

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Each June at the Huntington branch office, Kubitz leads a collection drive for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, and each September, there's a winter clothing campaign, in cooperation with city police, firefighters and others.

"It's easy to do things for other folks," she says, "and everyone has been very wonderful and very supporting."

Awarded annually since 1972, the Jefferson Awards honor volunteers for their community services. More than 150 local organizations --- mainly newspapers and TV stations --- select local winners in 90 cities across the country.

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In Pittsburgh, regional winners are chosen by the Post-Gazette from a pool of 50 "community champions" nominated by their peers. Highmark, the Pittsburgh Foundation and the Heinz Endowments sponsor the awards locally.

Kubitz was nominated by Bill Long, manager of Operation HOPE's Pittsburgh office. During an awards ceremony Feb. 12 in Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland, PNC Foundation announced that it will donate $1,000 to Operation HOPE on Kubitz's behalf.

One person from each community is then selected by the national board of directors of the Jefferson Awards to represent their town or region in Washington, D.C.

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Although she lives in Brookline, much of Kubitz's volunteer work has been done in the Mon-Yough area --- with one notable exception. Last year, she spent eight days in Guatemala on a medical mission sponsored by First Presbyterian Church of Murrysville.

As doctors and nurses met with villagers to set up medical clinics, Kubitz's job was to watch and entertain their children. "I don't speak a word of Spanish," she says, "but I have a friend who's a nurse and he said to me, 'You'd be perfect for this ... you like to volunteer.'"

Kubitz was moved to begin working in the community 20 years ago, when she was a single mom. A run of bad luck forced her and her two small children to seek help from a food pantry.

"Eventually, I decided that there was someone out there who needed help more than me," Kubitz says. Her kids --- now 24 and 31 --- have been supportive, she says.

"They know that I like volunteering and helping folks," Kubitz says.