By Todd DePastino
Over the past nine months, many of the stories shared at the Veterans Breakfast Club have been captured by the lens of videographer and photographer Catherine Maher.
A generous donor allowed Catherine to join the VBC as our Visual Media Fellow through Pittsburgh Fellows, bringing with her a photographer’s eye, a filmmaker’s curiosity, and a deep appreciation for the human side of storytelling. She quickly became an important part of how we preserve and share veterans’ voices.
If you’ve seen photos of our recent events or browsed our YouTube channel, you’ve seen some of Catherine’s work. A recent production is this highlight reel explaining the VBC’s mission and how it unfolds at our events:
And here’s a highlight reel of interviews Catherine and I conducted in Youngstown earlier this year. The video captures a few moments from those conversations where speak candidly about why they served, what they remember, and how those experiences shaped them.
Catherine’s work has taken her where the VBC operates: banquet halls, museums, churches, Legion posts, and wherever else we hold our storytelling breakfasts across Western Pennsylvania. Her footage not only captures stories but documents the energy and fellowship of VBC gatherings.
More than technical skill, Catherine brought sensitivity to the work. Veterans’ stories are not simply “content.” They are memories, identities, fragments of history, and cherished life moments that need to be handled with care. Good documentary work requires patience and attention—not just to what people say, but to pauses, expressions, and moments of quiet reflection before a story comes forth. Catherine understands that instinctively.
A 2025 graduate of Grove City College with a degree in Communication focused on visual media production, Catherine already arrived with an impressive portfolio that included narrative and documentary work such as Bittersweet, The Rose, The Pittsburgh Project, Magnum Opus, and Final Farewell. Her film Found Self was recognized as a Top 3 finalist at the IES Abroad Film Festival.
At the VBC, she expanded that work into the world of oral history and community storytelling. Her time with uas strengthened her experience in interviewing, editing, social media storytelling, and documentary field work. She also took on archival organization and post-production for us.
As Catherine concludes her fellowship with the VBC this spring, we want to thank her publicly for the creativity, professionalism, and care she brought to this work.
We also want to encourage our extended VBC community—especially those involved in documentary film, media, nonprofit storytelling, museums, education, and journalism—to connect with Catherine as she begins the next chapter of her career.
Catherine is especially interested in opportunities involving:
- documentary film
- editing and post-production
- production assistance
- interview-based storytelling
- visual media and archival projects
Here is Catherine’s portfolio: Catherine Maher Portfolio
One of the great joys of this work is not only getting to know veterans and hearing their remarkable stories, but also introducing others, especially younger people, to the veterans community and watching them grow through that encounter. Time and again, we’ve seen veterans share wisdom, humor, candor, and perspective in ways that leave lasting impressions on those wise enough to listen. Catherine was one of those young people who engaged deeply with those stories and the people telling them.
We’re also happy to say that this is not really goodbye. Catherine will continue to return from time to time to photograph, film, and document select Veterans Breakfast Club events, and we’re glad to know her work and presence will remain part of the VBC community. We look forward to seeing her around and watching where her work leads her.
