Announcing the 2025 Champions for Better Health Awardees
October 24, 2025
The Partnership for Better Health is pleased to announce our 2025 Champions for Better Health! These awards recognize individuals and organizations that play a vital role in advancing the health and wellness of our region. Presenting the 2025 awardees, nominated by our community:
Safe Harbour, Social Determinants of Health Award
Social Determinants of Health are the structural factors and conditions that affect everyone’s health. These determinants include socioeconomic status, the environment, neighborhood safety, social support networks, and access to resources to meet daily needs, such as safe housing and healthy foods. People’s homes, schools, jobs and neighborhoods significantly influence health outcomes.
Safe Harbour has served the Carlisle community for over 40 years and is well-deserving of recognition through the Social Determinants of Health Awards. Safe Harbour champions all five Social Determinants of Health in their work: Economic Stability, Educational Access and Quality, Healthcare Access and Quality, Neighborhood and Built Environment, and Social and Community Context.
Safe Harbour staff and volunteers build trusting relationships with residents, connecting them with health care providers, behavioral health services, educational opportunities, and employment training. By removing common barriers to accessing care, Safe Harbour ensures that residents can address both their immediate health needs and long-term well-being to remain contributing members of our community, thereby advancing health equity in our community.
Grace Gunnett, Heather Swartz Volunteer Award
This award is to honor an individual who demonstrates exceptional leadership skills in their volunteer activities and plays a major role in advancing the health and wellness of our region. This award is named in honor of Heather Swartz, a who is remembered as a kind human being and fierce champion of volunteerism.
This year we recognize Grace Gunnett as the recipient of the Heather Swartz Volunteer Award. Grace first engaged with Reins of Rhythm in Fayetteville at the age of 12. She began volunteering at the age of fourteen and continues that weekly service, going above and beyond her role as an employee for the organization. Grace brought trauma informed mentoring to the organization to support children in foster care and works to support other members of our community including recent survivors of domestic violence.
Grace embodies the spirit of the Heather Swartz Volunteer Award through her service to our community.
Stacie Nickel, Nonprofit Professional AwardSafe Harbour, Social Determinants of Health Award
Social Determinants of Health are the structural factors and conditions that affect everyone’s health. These determinants include socioeconomic status, the environment, neighborhood safety, social support networks, and access to resources to meet daily needs, such as safe housing and healthy foods. People’s homes, schools, jobs and neighborhoods significantly influence health outcomes.
Safe Harbour has served the Carlisle community for over 40 years and is well-deserving of recognition through the Social Determinants of Health Awards. Safe Harbour champions all five Social Determinants of Health in their work: Economic Stability, Educational Access and Quality, Healthcare Access and Quality, Neighborhood and Built Environment, and Social and Community Context.
Safe Harbour staff and volunteers build trusting relationships with residents, connecting them with health care providers, behavioral health services, educational opportunities, and employment training. By removing common barriers to accessing care, Safe Harbour ensures that residents can address both their immediate health needs and long-term well-being to remain contributing members of our community, thereby advancing health equity in our community.
Grace Gunnett, Heather Swartz Volunteer Award
This award is to honor an individual who demonstrates exceptional leadership skills in their volunteer activities and plays a major role in advancing the health and wellness of our region. This award is named in honor of Heather Swartz, a who is remembered as a kind human being and fierce champion of volunteerism.
This year we recognize Grace Gunnett as the recipient of the Heather Swartz Volunteer Award. Grace first engaged with Reins of Rhythm in Fayetteville at the age of 12. She began volunteering at the age of fourteen and continues that weekly service, going above and beyond her role as an employee for the organization. Grace brought trauma informed mentoring to the organization to support children in foster care and works to support other members of our community including recent survivors of domestic violence.
Grace embodies the spirit of the Heather Swartz Volunteer Award through her service to our community.
This award honors an outstanding nonprofit professional who has played a vital role in advancing the health and wellness of our region.
We recognize Stacie Nickel, Executive Director of the Todd Baird Lindsey Devlin Foundation, for her efforts within our community.
The primary goal of the Todd Baird Lindsey Devlin Foundation is to help older adults remain in independent living situations for as long as practical. Stable housing is vital to individual health and community wellbeing. As the only full-time employee, Stacie is the face of the organization. She uses her professional knowledge, well-developed social skills and a profound sense of compassion for her clients to further the goals of the foundation and serve our residents.
Bryan and Patty Sibbach, Community Health Champion Award
This year, we honor two individuals who take a leadership role in advancing the health and wellness of our region.
As owners of Perry Strength & Fitness Center and Prevision Training Concepts, Bryan and Patty Sibbach work to make Perry County strong! Through complimentary fitness tutorials, discounted memberships, Silver Sneakers, and more, they provide opportunities and make fitness more accessible to the local community. Their volunteerism in local schools and nonprofit organizations promotes health and wellness in our region and the Partnership honors them as Community Health Champions.
CWS Harrisburg’s Integrated Refugee Staff Members, Lived Experience Award
Lived experience is personal knowledge about the world gained through direct, first-hand involvement in everyday events rather than through representations constructed by other people.
This year, we honor a group of individuals whose lived experience has greatly impacted the work in our community over the past year. CWS Harrisburg supports our region's refugees as they resettle, integrate, and thrive through programs and projects that encourage self-sufficiency. CWS Harrisburg understands the value of lived experience in carrying out their mission. The integrated refugee staff team is an incredible asset to our community.
This year, we recognice Rana Abbas, Daria Cherednyk, Daria Dziuba, Kateryna Gmyria, Anastasiia Kachan, Dad Khuda Sharifi, Najem Sennad, Mehdi Zaddam, and Ali Zafary for their service to our community as lived experience champions.
The Partnership for Better Health provides $200 in each award category for awardees to donate toward a nonprofit of their choice. Awardees were honored at the Champions for Better Health Celebration this Thursday, October 23, at the Barn at Creek’s Bend in Carlisle. To learn more about the Partnership for Better Health and Champions for Better Health Awards, please visit: https://forbetterhealthpa.org/.
The Partnership for Better Health champions and invests in ideas, initiatives, and collaborations to advance equity and improve the health of the people and communities in our region. Learn more: https://www.ForBetterHealthPA.org.
Contact:
Antonia Fitzgerald Price, Director of Communications & Development
antonia@ForBetterHealthPA.org, 717.960.9009 x 2
