Event Highlights

PICPA Member Reflects on His Involvement with LifePath

A job change, a brief conversation, and a passion for LifePath’s mission are the reasons behind 10 extraordinary years of LifePath’s Thanksgiving Day events.

Jack Morrone is a certified public accountant in Allentown and has known Michael Krajsa since 1988. In 1996, Morrone caught up with Krajsa, and casually asked him how things were going. Krajsa informed him that he moved on to a new job at LifePath. After Morrone, a father of two children with a developmental delay, learned more about LifePath and the many services it offers, Krajsa suggested he join the board. Morrone was immediately hooked.

Krajsa and Morrone’s relationship transcends the typical business connection, and the two sought to make a big difference in the lives of developmentally disabled people.  

Morrone, an active member of Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accoutants’ Lehigh Valley Chapter and a past president of LifePath’s board of directors, recalls how Krajsa shared several fundraising ideas with him, including the Thanksgiving Benefit and Awards Luncheon where LifePath and PICPA would be partners. Morrone realized the kind of influence CPAs have in the business community, helped pitch the idea to Anthony Deutsch, then president of PICPA’s Lehigh Valley Chapter, and the rest of the chapter officers.

“The expectation was that member CPAs would have a forum to be brighter in the public eye as good community citizens,” Morrone said.

PICPA’s chapter leadership was sold on the idea, and plans were put into action.

The Thanksgiving Benefit and Awards Luncheon has brought much awareness to LifePath and the job it does for the developmentally disabled. Celebrity keynote speakers, including Mike Schmidt, Ron Jaworski, and Jim Kelly have brought positive headlines and raised the level of exposure. The event also greatly benefits from sponsors such as Holiday Inn, Kostas Kalogeropoulos, PICPA, and Tallman, Hudders & Sorrentino who have helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars during the 10-year run of this event. Morrone, however, believes more can, and needs, to be done.

“There are hundreds of employees working directly with adults and children – feeding, educating, dressing, bathing, and transporting,” Morrone said. “They have an immense responsibility.”

Despite the multi-million dollar budget, raising money for LifePath needs to be a year-round endeavor. The luncheon goes a long way in raising funds for a great cause.