We enjoyed our day off for Labor Day this week because your VISTA team is hard at work improving the lives of Elk County residents. We are in meetings, planning sessions, and bent over our desks every day to make our programs a reality. After the success of the Summer Works Living Greener life skills class, we are turning out attention to the fall class. We are beginning our recruitment for the Fall Living Greener
I am thrilled to announce that I will be participating in the 10th class of Leadership Elk County (LEC). This program, hosted by the Communication Education Center of Elk and Cameron Counties, affords the opportunity for me to develop my professional skills and learn what makes Elk County tick. We will explore the area’s history, current public issues and the skills needed to embrace your inner leader. I was brought here as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer to
Don’t Take the PA Wilds for GrantedMy daughter, Linsey, is an English teacher in South Korea. Last month she came for a visit with our 9-month old granddaughter, Layna, and a 12-year-old student, Lily. This was Linsey’s first visit to the PA Wilds region and she was impressed by how clear and clean the sky is here. We were in the car and she told me the sky looks just like the Microsoft screen saver.
Community Gardens are making a scene in the United States. They are definitely making an appearance in Elk County. Local’ Motion, a community group located in Saint Marys, has been taking the lead and partnering with local faith based organizations, such as Grace Episcopal Church and First United Methodist Church, to establish community gardens in both Ridgway and Saint Marys with these churches. Local’ Motion is looking to better the community and provide improvement for food
The last few weeks I have been pleased to go out into the community and do a recruitment drive for volunteer trainers for our Living Greener program. The trainers will come in as a guest speaker and use our curriculum to teach life skills to Living Greener Participants. The goal is to have entry level workers fully prepared for a full time job in the work force. We cover a range of things such as
