Karen Newpol of Cranberry Township has been named president of Cranberry Sunrise Rotary.

Karen Newpol is no stranger to volunteer work.

Since 1997, Newpol has spent much of her time as a volunteer and leader across a multitude of Cranberry Township community organizations.

She’s served as a board member of the Cranberry Township Community Chest since 2011, as well as in the role of communications coordinator. She has worked as a past officer and current chaplain for the Cranberry Elks, and she is the president of the Sunrise Rotary Club of Cranberry Township.

Newpol will add another, larger-scale community leadership title to her belt Thursday, when she joins the Cranberry Township board of supervisors. She will be sworn in to fill the vacant seat on the board, left open by the passing of Richard “Dick” Hadley in August.

“I’m excited about getting started,” Newpol said. “I’m really looking forward to learning the ropes and understanding the process, and being part of the process.”

Newpol was one of 22 applicants and 12 interviewees reviewed by the township’s vacancy board over the past month. Supervisors cited her community service experience, positive attitude and work ethic as reasons why they chose her for the role at a Sept. 29 board meeting.

Her work with Cranberry included assisting as promotion coordinator for CTCC's Project of the Year, an annual project that has raised funds to support community assets of all kinds, from the Community Sign, Scouting Plaza and Lake and exercise stations in the parks to Kids Castle in Community Park, SportsCourts in Graham Park, and the Disc Golf Course at North Boundary Park, among other projects.

“I think my community hours are at just around 5,000 hours in the past 10 years,” Newpol said. “I think my entire life has been involved in doing community work. From the minute I get up in the morning, I’m juggling several different community aspects.”

Newpol and her family built their “dream house” in Cranberry, and she now serves as president of the Bellevue Park Homeowners Association.

“We love our neighborhood; we love our neighbors,” she said. “It’s such a great community. I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

Newpol hopes to focus on Cranberry Township’s recycling program as a first project to tackle once she is officially seated.

“I believe our recycling program could have more enthusiasm to it, so I’m hoping to kind of work with that and get people understanding exactly how recycling works and where it goes, and how we can do more for the environment just by not having so much plasticware and plastic cups and bottles,” Newpol said. “I just want to re-energize it.”

She also looks forward to keeping up with the ongoing parks, recreation and open space planning process, and she has worked with Cranberry Parks and Recreation in recent months to collaborate on events.

“(Cranberry) Elks is going to have a hoop shoot for the kids, and I’ve been working with Parks and Recreation to get that organized for the kids,” she said. “It’s kind of all a very tidy circle. Everybody is doing everything to help make this a great community.”

Traffic is a topic that Newpol has kept in mind as a perennial Cranberry issue. She said she looks forward to future construction projects that may add further thruways to ease access to Route 19.

“The roads are forever on my mind," she said. “I believe they are going in the right direction, and I’d like to just keep going in that right direction that we are going, and assure people that we are addressing traffic issues and everything else that is going on in the township, as far as construction.”

At heart, Newpol said the people and community of Cranberry are what draws her to love the region.

“The people are awesome. They are just great,” she said. “I already knew all of the township employees for forever; I’ve been working with them. My neighbors are great people, and every organization I've worked with is great. This is home, and I want to be a bigger part of that.”