After 22 years as president of the Bradford Creative and
Performing Arts Center, James D. Guelfi has retired as the
organization’s first president.

Karen Niemic Buchheit was elected as the presenting arts
organization’s new president at its annual meeting Tuesday
night.

Additionally, Patty Colosimo, coordinator of campus reservations
and facilities and coordinator of the Spectrum series at the
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, was elected to the board and
named a member of the marketing committee.

Ann Conard, who recently retired from the Pitt-Bradford’s Office
of Institutional Advancement, was named to the newly formed office
management and human resource committee.

Pat Grandy, marketing communications manager for Zippo
Manufacturing Co., was named chair of marketing for BCPAC.

Each of the new members was elected to a three-year term.

The board elected these officers for a one-year term: Buchheit,
president, Terry Palmer, vice president, Patricia Vecellio,
treasurer, Sandra Lyter, recording secretary, and Debbie Lowery,
corresponding secretary.

Re-elected to the board for a tree-year term were Buchheit,
Debbie Digel, Lyter, Fred Smith and Vecellio.

Continuing on the board are James Gelston, Leslie Goble, Guelfi,
Jacqueline Jones, Marlene Kijowski, Lowery, Terry Palmer and Terri
Smith.

Seth Bickford, a student at the University of Pittsburgh at
Bradford, and Hannah Garrett, who attends Bradford Area High
School, were re-elected to serve as student representatives.

But the big news of the evening, says newly elected vice
president Terry Palmer, was “the passing of the baton from
President Guelfi to President Buchheit.”

Guelfi said, “I have been honored to have been able to do this
work for this long for this town. I love Bradford, and I love
entertainment. In BCPAC, I was able to bring the two together.”

Guelfi, who worked in banking in Bradford for 32 years, took
advantage of an early retirement program from Penn Bank, now
National City, in 1987, a move that gave him the time and the
opportunity to devote himself to BCPAC.

Since that time, says Buchheit, “Jim has worked on nearly 150
shows and fundamentally changed the cultural landscape of Bradford
and the surrounding region.”

To honor Guelfi for his decades of service, BCPAC’s board of
directors has taken a number of actions, including renaming the
BCPAC endowment to the James D. Guelfi Endowment for the Bradford
Creative and Performing Arts Center (J-BCPAC).

The board also named Guelfi “president emeritus” of BCPAC.

Guelfi will be honored at BCPAC’s Dec. 19 showcase concert
featuring Bradford native Joe Herndon and His Pittsburgh All-Star
Little Big Band, at 7:30 p.m. in the Bromeley Family Theater, in
Blaisdell Hall on the campus of Pitt-Bradford.

Tickets are currently on sale at the BCPAC office. A special
event to acknowledge Guelfi will follow the performance.

But the president emeritus isn’t going away, the newly elected
BCPAC president says.

“While Jim is retiring as president of BCPAC,” says Buchheit,
“he still will be very much around. He’s been named president
emeritus, of course, but he is currently the chair of the program
selection committee, as well. He’s still very much a part of BCPAC
and its future.”

Guelfi, though, is philosophical about this turning point for
him.

“After 22 years,” Guelfi explained, “it was simply time for me
to engage other tasks and assume different responsibilities. As
they say, ‘to every thing, there is a season.’

“I’ve worked with Karen Buchheit at both Pitt-Bradford and with
BCPAC,” says Guelfi,” and I’m proud to turn my duties over to so
capable a professional. Karen brings a great deal of expertise and
experience to BCPAC’s leadership.”

Buchheit, who is the director of institutional advancement and
the assistant to the president at Pitt-Bradford, joined BCPAC in
1990. Since then, she has served as grant writer, marketing chair
and vice president. Having just stepped down as the president of
the Kiwanis Club, she also serves on the YWCA board of trustees and
YMCA Swim Team Boosters board. She is an alumna of Indiana
University of Pennsylvania with a degree in journalism.

Colosimo, a native of Bradford, has worked at Pitt-Bradford
since 1999. She is an alumna of Indiana University of Pennsylvania
with a bachelor of fine arts degree in art, music and
communications.

Conard is from New Jersey and has lived in the Bradford area
since 1989. She retired from Pitt-Bradford’s Office of
Institutional Advancement in July, where she worked as database
manager. She is an alumna of the University of Delaware with a
bachelor of science degree in mathematics.

Grandy has been at Zippo Manufacturing Co. for 14 years.
Currently, he is also a member of Pitt-Bradford’s Communications
and University Relations Council and the Bradford Owls Football and
Basketball Boosters. He is an alumnus of Indiana University,
Bloomington, with a degree in journalism/advertising.