In May 2018 the mosaic titled We are all Unique was installed by Connor Heath and the Huntingdon Area High School staff. The mosaic installed made the cover of our local newspaper, The Daily News. The story also shared information about the 2018 SPBI Grant.
J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital
Juniata College
Standing Stone Coffee Company
Huntingdon Kiwanis
The Medicine Shoppe
Frank P. Hommon Post No. 24, American Legion
Huntingdon CareerLink with Kathy Hall
Grier School
Huntingdon Area Middle School
Individual supporters include: Jennifer Koskey, The Slusher Family in addition to many more individuals and families who came out during the 2017 season to help with–or donate to–the Community Food Garden! Thanks as always to the Huntingdon Community Center for generously providing us with a place to grow vegetables for the community!
The 2017 season at the Community Food Garden was a great success. It takes a community to enact positive change, and we thank everyone for donating their time to help low income folks enjoy the pleasure of eating fresh produce straight out of the garden. Every time we dropped off produce at the Drop-In Center and the Salvation Army, we were received with smiles, thank-yous, and comments regarding how good the produce from the past week tasted.
In 2017 we donated $2,109 in produce to our local food banks. To put that number in perspective, let’s look at the total weight of our primary crops:
239 pounds of potatoes
235 pounds of onions
231.5 pounds of tomatoes
221.5 pounds of zucchini and butternut squash
45 pounds of beans (from our tiny little plot!)
We hope that with growing interest in the local food movement and continued community involvement the Huntingdon Community Food Garden will grow and evolve in ways to better suit the needs of our community at large. Our community support this year was immensely appreciated; again, without the efforts of our newly established “Garden Crews” and volunteers our success this year would not have been possible. It was a pleasure to work with all of you; the camaraderie of people from a myriad of backgrounds coming together for a common purpose was truly cherished.
Here’s to a great season and even more bountiful seasons to come!
Sincerely,
ReInvision Huntingdon
Project: Inviting Creative Play and Reading
Funded: $500
Submitted by: Sarah Worley
UPDATE Fall 2017: Sarah has recently gained permission from the Weis Market and the Huntingdon Borough to work on her project. She is also working with a Juniata Studio Arts Students and Faculty to develop the mural. Sarah has received enough materials to build the Little Free Library and plans to install not only one at Weaver Park but a second LFL at the Huntingdon Community Food Garden!
Sarah Proposed to create a public mural project around the concrete platform in Weaver Park behind the Huntingdon Weis Market and paint it to look like a stage in order to invite dramatic and creative play in that space where children are already. The second part of the project is to build a “Little Free Library” in that same park to encourage and invite reading to children on the benches and the acting out of stories on the stage.
Project: Andrews Benches
Funded: $500
Submitted by: Beth Williams
Proposed: Seating area at the Portstown Park Skate Park
UPDATE: Beth has completed her seating area project at the skate park. She worked with the Huntingdon Career and Technology Center faculty and students to build the bench in addition to the borough to seek proper permission for the seating area.
Live announcement of October 2016 SPBI winner
Project: We Are All Unique Mosaic
Funded: $500
Submitted by: Erin Shaffer, Huntingdon Area High School Art Teacher and Connor Heath, Art Student
Proposed: Mosaic to be located at the Huntingdon Area High School front entrance
UPDATE: Connor has completed his mosaic windows in May of 2018. Conner worked on his large mosaic from home with the guidance of his Huntingdon Area High School art teacher Mrs. Erin Shaffer. The mosaic was recently installed on the front entry window of the Huntingdon Area High School gymnasium.
This evenings Public Community Discussion meeting went off without a hitch! With nearly four dozen attendees ranging from new resident to seasoned Huntingdon native, our conversation was lively. Tonight, our primary goal was met again creating a space for positive dialogue and community connection focused on revitalizing Huntingdon.
Many ideas prevailed including creative ways to connect our youth to our local experts. Much of the conversation related on identifying professional fields and helping craft more meaningful early experiences for our local youth with our eager to share citizens.
Discussions also prevailed on furthering our Juniata campus and Huntingdon community connections through volunteering opportunities and a potluck style community meal. We’ll have another meeting on the books soon to put the plans from this evening into action. Stay tuned for details regarding our next meeting. #CommunityInput #TooInspiredToBeTired
Project: Historical Blair Park
Funded: $650
Submitted by: Julie Peoples
Proposed: Considered Huntingdon’s Hidden Treasure, Blair Park garden cleanup, signage, heirloom plants to be updated for the Huntingdon Park & Road Association with assistance from the Master Gardeners of Huntingdon County.
UPDATE: Julie has completed her SPBI Grant proposal. The project worked with the Huntingdon Park and Road Association and the Huntingdon County Master Gardeners. A sign has been installed at the entrance of Blair Park in addition to perennials that are kept by the volunteers of the park.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for helping make last night’s Public Community Discussion prosperous. We spent a few hours together and were able to connect several interests with tangible outcomes for our community. With a diverse group ranging in age and professional backgrounds, we feel the greatest outcome from the discussion was that you all were able to identify and work through 4 areas of interest.
The following 4 unique initiatives emerged:
– Education/Afterschool Programs
– Community Gardens
– Universal Community Events Calendar (online)
– Bicycles/Sustainable Transportation
Creating Community Connections through Inclusion
Although we created four distinct groups last night, there are plenty of other members in our community that have expressed interest in working with ReInvision Huntingdon to execute projects. In order to make a large, sustainable community impact, RH is happy to promote and help facilitate meetings for the individual groups that were created. We are not interested in micro-managing, but do know that it takes a village to make large caliber ideas come to fruition. If your group has chosen to continue meeting prior to a future RH meeting, please keep us posted. We are happy to make an “Event” on Facebook and continue to get interested community members involved in meetings.
One example: The community gardens concept has roughly 15-20 individuals who were not in attendance last night but have expressed serious interested in helping facilitate a publicly accessible garden space. These individuals range from high school and college students, local farmers, and Juniata Faculty.
Many of you asked: what are we doing next?
In addition to holding our community discussion meetings we hope to hold one big meeting with a representative from each community group/organization. The goal and purpose of doing this is to break the ‘small meeting’ mindset and present an overall ‘United Community’ plan that has an advantage of leading ideas to fruition. Many times, we have an idea and as mentioned last night, we don’t know where to start.
Tuesday April 12th from 5:30-7:30PM
We would like to schedule the next Public Community Discussion on Tuesday, April 12th from 5:30-7:30pm. We have identified several potential meeting locations, however, if you have an idea for a meeting space that can hold 50-80 guests comfortably please let us know. We are happy to take your recommendations!
Huntingdon is very fortunate to have this high caliber of community members that are interested in, and willing to help make change happen. We look forward to working with each of you in the coming weeks!
Project: Boro Park Beautification
Funded: $500
Submitted by: Linda Goodman
Proposed: Work with Boy scout Troop 28 of Huntingdon to cleanup and beautify the park across from Laneys Feedmill.
UPDATE: Linda has completed her SPBI Grant proposal. The cleanup was completed in the spring of 2016 with the Huntingdon Boy Scout Troop 28. The troop built new benches and picnic tables in addition to working on general cleanup of brush, trees, and weeds.
