IN THIS WEEKEND of fireworks, we light in this space today several metaphorical sparklers to celebrate some good happenings in our little corner of the land of the free -- none more so than the Pittsburgh Promise, which provides college scholarships to graduates of the Pittsburgh Public Schools and city charter schools. The Promise, established in December 2006 by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and school Superintendent Mark Roosevelt, last week provided good news for the city: It exceeded its fund-raising goal of $15 million despite the recession and the "worst fund-raising environment in a generation" -- as Pittsburgh Foundation President and CEO Grant Oliphant said. The final amount raised was $15.2 million -- $13 million from 17 foundations, $2 million from 31 corporations and organizations and $200,000 from more than 500 individual donors. This community effort proved to be a Roman candle of philanthropy.

PITTSBURGH is specially blessed with philanthropic foundations and last week they rallied to help the Dwelling House Savings & Loan, a 119-year-old thrift in the Hill District that was the victim of cyber thieves who drained $3 million from its coffers over a one-year period, bringing it to the brink of ruin. Details were not revealed about how much the Richard King Mellon Foundation (through the Poise Foundation), the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Heinz Endowments and the Elsie H. Hillman Foundation, along with Dollar Bank, invested to help the minority-owned institution meet a federal deadline to show that it was still capable of doing business -- and it's not yet clear whether it will work. But that helping hand was a sparkling gesture.

MANY LANDMARKS have disappeared in the City of Champions over the years, but this is also a city of long memories -- and last week an important anniversary was not forgotten. Forbes Field opened 100 years ago on June 30, 1909 (the old ballpark closed on June 28, 1970). The Senator John Heinz History Center and Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum opened a display of rare baseball memorabilia to mark the occasion (it will run until Nov. 8) and on Wednesday night the Pirates marked the milestone at PNC Park with Bucco great Bill Mazeroski in attendance. And the Pirates won that night, which is worth more than a rocket or two.