Ray Saunders

Ray Saunders. , He loved the Lord. He ministered to teenagers. He served the community., Ray Saunders was born and raised in Homestead, PA and moved to West Mifflin during his junior year of High School. Ray was a three-year starter at center on the Penn State basketball team from 1964-1966, appearing in NCAA and NIT Tournament games., After college, Ray served in Vietnam as a chaplain's assistant from 1967-68. Upon his return he began doing work with the Steel Valley Youth Ministry., In April 1972, Ray joined the staff of Young Life, an international non- denominational youth ministry., He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister through the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1973. However, he chose to forgo work in a church and instead focused on ministering to teens in the Steel Valley and surrounding communities through Young Life., Using his love of gardening as a tool, and in cooperation with the Homestead-Area Economic Revitalization Corporation (HERC), Ray and several Young Life teens created this garden and others in the Homestead area., Ray continued to be a guiding presence in the lives of Mon Valley Youth until his untimely death on December 20th, 2009., 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.' , Matthew 25:35, (Captions):, Ray leads a Young Life club at the home of a Steel Valley teenager in the 1970s, Ray hangs out with teens at the Summer's Best Two Weeks camp in the early 1990's, Ray poses with the Young Life softball team, in the mid 1980s., Ray organizes teen and adult volunteers to clear this lot at 15th and West for its first garden planting in the late 1990's., Ray and son Jesse at Young Life's Lake Saranac with teens from Steel Valley, West Mifflin, and Baldwin in the early 2000's.