Gene Puskar
Calling all golfers: Experience LEBO wants you. The first young professionals golf scramble is Saturday,
June 14, at 12:30 p . m . at the Mt. Lebanon Public Golf Course. So clean up those cleats and get
hacking. Brett Satterfield, left, is chairing the event, which will include tips from David Boal, right, the
course manager. To sign up, e-mail brett.satterfield@gmail.com.

you can help, call Anne Fleming Babish
at 412-889-6630.

For details and to find out how to
become involved with Experience Lebo,
log on to www.experiencelebo.com.

Child care Plans are taking shape for
a new child care facility on the southern
edge of the municipality. Crossgates Inc.

plans to develop a KinderCare Day Care
center at 1610 North Highland Road,
just off Washington Road behind the
new shopping center that houses a bank,
restaurant and spa. Crossgates’ Robert
Sapsara says plans call for a 9,980-square-
foot center that will serve children from
infants through kindergarten. The cen-
ter will include parking for 36 cars. It
will be fenced and will have play areas.

A single-story home currently on the site
will be demolished, with the center set to
open by the end of the year. KinderCare
currently operates nearly 2,000 centers
around the country. Crossgates devel-
oped a site for a KinderCare in Peters
that opened last year.

Learning Express If you’re yearning
for the personalized service of a mom
and pop toy store with the selection
power of a national chain, you’re in
luck. A Mt. Lebanon family is opening
a Learning Express store on the upper
level of The Galleria next to Mitchell’s
Fish Market.

David Bahm and his wife, Amy, of
Crestvue Manor Drive, are the store’s
owners. Both have backgrounds in re-
tail and were disappointed when the
number and quality of local toy stores
dwindled. They plan a soft opening for
the store on June 4, with a grand open-
ing June 6-8.

Learning Express has more than 130
locations, but this will be the first in the
South Hills. The only other location in
the area is in Cranberry.

Its shelves will be stocked with all
sorts of toys, crafts and games, for in-
fants on up to teenagers. In addition
to books, science toys, puzzles, remote
control vehicles and jewelry kits, they
will sell Crocs for kids and adults.

But more important, Amy says, the
store will have unsurpassed service. For
example, if your kid gets invited to a
birthday party at the last minute for
a very active 10-year-old boy and you
have no idea what to get, you can call
the store, tell them what you need, give
them your price range and a credit card
number. In 10 minutes, they’ll select
the gift, wrap it and have it ready for
you to pick up. Gift wrapping and per-
sonalization are free.

They also will have lots of product
demonstrations. “How do you know if
a toy is fun until you get to play with
continued www.mtlebanon.org 15



tow n top ics
continued it?” says Amy. Story time, craft day and
play days with character visits are also
on the menu and vendors will visit of-
ten to give previews. The staff, which
is expected eventually to number 12 to
15 people, will build relationships with
customers in the hopes of helping them
find the best products.

“It will be a high-energy, fun place,”
Amy says. “We’re going to be constant-
ly looking for fun things to do.”
An important component of the
store will be its charity work. “We want-
ed to give back to the community,” she
says. On Thursday, June 5, from 5 to
9 p.m., the store will have a benefit for
the Playground Project of the Mario
Lemieux Foundation. For every $1 the
customers spend, the store will donate
50 cents worth of toys to the founda-
tion for use in children’s waiting rooms
in hospitals, so siblings of sick kids will
be able to play while parents visit the
child. The couple, who have three young
boys, will be active in the store, with
Amy doing the buying and David sup-
porting where needed. He will still
work in his family’s industrial equip-
ment sales business as a manufacturer’s
rep. David and Amy both started as
assistant buyers for Kaufmann’s. Amy
also earned an MBA from the Univer-
sity of Pittsburgh and worked in mar-
keting and was a product manager for
PNC Bank. David grew up on Main
Entrance Drive and his former news-
paper delivery route included their cur-
rent neighborhood.

Amy says they are excited to return
to their retail roots. “It’s really fun,” she
says. “We really love the company.”
To reach Learning Express, call
412-341-TOYS. FINDER OF LOST DOGS South Hills
Cooperative Animal Control has initi-
ated a “Pet Find” project to reunite
owners and missing pets. The animal
control unit will post timely informa-
tion about found dogs and cats on Mt.

Lebanon’s Web site. If you lose your
pet, call 412-531-5300 and/or check
www.mtlebanon.org and click on “Pet
Find Project” for photos and descrip-
tions of animals being housed at the
kennel. If you find a loose pet please
call 412-531-5300.

16 mtl • june 2008