Peg Luksik, founder of Mom's House Inc. in Johnstown, and Bonnie Riek, president and CEO of the non-profit organization to help single moms gain an education, have gone into a celebration mode.

Luksik's "baby" is now 15 years old. "It's time to celebrate our founding," said Riek. The kickoff of a year-long celebration will be Sept. 11 and 12.

A national conference and banquet will be held Saturday at the Johnstown Holiday Inn. The theme will be "15 Years - A Celebration and Sharing," and the event will feature "memoirs" of the founders, presidents and graduates of Mom's House. Luksik will be keynote speaker at the 6 p.m. dinner banquet. Meetings of house administrators and the board of trustees will be held Friday, and a reception for visitors will follow at the Johnstown Mom's House.

Mom's House was born from an idea to help single moms in the Lancaster area. Luksik said she felt a solution to the despair of teen-age pregnancy was to provide free day care for the children of students who wanted to finish their schooling. At no charge, the children would be kept in a clean, safe, pleasant environment while the mothers went to class.

The non-profit, licensed child-care center in an old church on Franklin St. in the Roxbury section of Johnstown was the culmination of a dream for Luksik, the mother of six children. Grateful for her own healthy family and her loving husband, she saw a way to pay back her own good luck.

The agreement was for the single parent to be committed to her own education; attend school faithfully; earn passing grades; help clean Mom's House; and attend parenting and life skills classes. The cost would be free to the single parent, as long as she signed that agreement.

But how to swing the cost of the venture? "People became interested in the concept and their generosity kicked in," Riek said. "We bought the church, and volunteers came to participate in this venture."

She recalls the first morning: "A woman from the next block knocked on the door and said she just had a garage sale and a crib didn't sell. Could we use it?"

"Could we ever," Riek said to her, gratefully.

Looking back, "I knew God would take care of us, so I didn't worry," said Riek.

Currently, 11 Mom's Houses, operate in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Delaware. In addition to Johnstown, site locations are Greensburg, two in Pittsburgh, Lancaster, Philadelphia, Endicott and Binghamton, N.Y., Toledo, Ohio, and Wilmington and Dover, Delaware.

Each has its own director and is self-sufficient, raising its own operating funds. "Mom's House is now helping single moms, with an alternative to abortion and welfare for them," Riek said, "and that will save the government a lot of money."

Luksik, a third-party gubernatorial candidate, is chairman of the board; Riek is president and CEO of Mom's House National Headquarters and secretary of the board of trustees. Support services include private tutoring, counseling, career planning, and classes in parenting, child development, nutrition, home management, life skills, health and safety.

In the past 15 years, Mom's House has played mother to 1,242 area children and enabled 1,099 parents to continue their education.

This year 68 students in the Mom's House program are college students, 19 are high school students. And 116 children are in the care of Mom's House while their mom, or sometimes their dad, is finishing an education. "So, it's time to recall 15 years of memories," Riek said.

Reiterating her faith, she said, "I always put the bills in the Bible that needed to be paid. And somehow they got paid."

For more information on Mom's House, call (814) 536-4813.