NEPA Gives kicked off yesterday, and Connects needs your support! We invite you to join the generosity movement and help us reach our goal of $3,000. We’re raising funds today to support our mission to help other organizations and communities to connect to resources and best practices to create a better Schuylkill County. Over the past year, Connects has been BUSY, and here are just a few highlights of what we have been up to:
- Provided technical assistance to the Borough of Schuylkill Haven to create the county’s first local-level Active Transportation Plan (ATP)! An ATP is a strategic framework to promote walking, cycling, other non-motorized travel, and public transit, guiding policies, infrastructure, and safety improvements.
- In collaboration with the Highway Safety Network, we conducted multiple bike rodeos, tabled at community events, and gave out over 100 bike helmets! Bike rodeos are fun, educational events where children learn and practice bicycle safety skills through hands-on activities and obstacle courses. They are also opportunities to educate parents on property safety and community leaders on making communities more bike-friendly through policies and infrastructure improvement.
- We just wrapped up another year of the Schuylkill County Youth Summit, which educates, engages, and equips high school students to create a better county to live, work, learn, and play.
- We, along with our partner agencies Schuylkill United Way, Schuylkill Community Action, and Tamaqua Area Community Partnership, convened social service organizations, school personnel, government agencies, and others for quarterly learning opportunities to better serve our county’s residents. Additionally, coming soon, through the HIVE Transportation, we are addressing public transportation barriers and access to care by bringing resources into our more rural communities.
- We have been the voice for Schuylkill County on many committees and task forces at the local, county, and state levels including the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s State Health Improvement Plan, Schuylkill County Suicide Prevention Task Force, Pennsylvania’s Week Without Driving Organizing Committee, NEPA MPO Active Transportation Task Force, STS Technical Advisory Committee, Schuylkill County Drug and Alcohol Prevention Partnership…to name a few!
- Finally, while Schuylkill Keep It Pretty remains its own nonprofit, we provide a fiscal sponsorship arrangement to provide administrative oversight and coordinate SKIP services! (Feeling extra generous? SKIP is also participating in NEPA Gives!). Just this spring, over 30 groups registered to conduct cleanups and collected over 200 bags of trash!
While we are fortunate to have financial support from Lehigh Valley Health Network, the Schuylkill County Commissioners, Schuylkill Keep It Pretty, Borough of Schuylkill Haven (via PA WalkWorks Active Transportation Grant), and other sponsorship and grant opportunities, we are still in need of additional financial support. All funds support staffing the above-mentioned projects, supplies, office expenses, and community engagement. Every dollar given locally supports local initiatives. Consider giving where you’re living.
Giving is easy: today until 7:00 PM, you can make your gift online at www.nepagives.org/organization/schuylkill-connects. Plus, if you give between 10 – 11:00 am, you help us try to win the Power Hour prize, courtesy of Marshall, Bohorad, Thornburg, Price & Campion PC. Power Hour is the organization with the most unique donors in the hour. We’ve successfully won the award in 4 previous years…can we make a comeback?? After you make your gift, encourage your friends, family, and colleagues to be a Giving Hero like you! Share our social media posts and tag @SchuylkillConnects and use the #NEPAGives hashtag to join in the excitement online! Then follow along by checking the NEPA Gives leaderboards, prizes page, and social media channels for exciting updates and announcements. Thanks for your support of Connects and for being a part of the NEPA Gives movement!
Sincerely,
Mandy Fitzpatrick, Executive Director
