Elizabethtown /townlively
OCTOBER 14, 2020
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL LXI • NO 39
Drawing Closer To A Cure BY DAYNA M. REIDENOUER
Members of the United Churches Elizabethtown Area board of directors who helped break ground for an expansion at Community Place on Washington on Sept. 11 are (from left) Kay Ardner, Nanette Lamb, Derrick McDonald, Beth Dreyer-DeGoede, Susan Fritz, and Doug Lamb.
UCEA Breaks Ground At CPOW BY ANN MEAD ASH
eb Jones, executive director of ECHOS (Elizabethtown Community Housing & Outreach Services), knows that many Elizabethtown and Mount Joy area residents have been waiting for the groundbreaking that occurred at 61 E. Washington St., Elizabethtown, on Sept. 11 at 4 p.m. “It was a longtime dream of community members to have a social services agency here in Elizabethtown,” said Jones. “It was decades.” That dream began to come to fruition in 2018 when United Churches Elizabethtown Area (UCEA) secured the Washington Street property, now known as Community Place on Washington (CPOW). The property formerly was a private school associated with St. Peter Catholic Church. On Sept. 11, ground was broken to expand that building to house a larger Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) compliant winter shelter and enrichment services, including job skills training, career and financial counseling, and a computer lab.
ECHOS administers a number of programs in addition to overseeing the winter shelter, but its duties will expand when the addition is completed. UCEA will have charge of the common areas of the building. “(UCEA) will be overseeing the reception area and training room,” reported Lamb. The rest will allow ECHOS to provide more services for area families. “It will expand our ECHOS offices and provide for enrichment services,” said Jones, noting that the focus will be on services related to education and providing avenues to seek jobs. Specifically, a computer lab with free online training will be on-site. “We have partnered with PA CareerLink for certification courses, and there will be a bilingual career navigator,” reported Jones. Budgeting workshops, community education workshops, and a mentoring program are also planned. “We will be able to meet physical needs by connecting people to other agencies that provide short-term services,” said Jones. “This is all about moving a family forward through their crisis from surviving to thriving.”
Advoz Partners With Local Police Departments Advoz: Mediation and Restorative Practices recently announced its partnership with the Elizabethtown Borough and Northwest Regional police departments in launching the new Rapid Referral Mediation (RRM) Program. The initiative establishes a coordinated referral process that will extend the continuum of services available to everyone in Lancaster County. The goal of the partnership is to bridge police and community partnerships
See CureLGMD2i pg 11
Melissa Grove
INSIDE THIS ISSUE FIA RECEIVES RECOGNITION . . . . . . . .2 TODDLER PROGRAM, FITNESS HIKE PLANNED . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 HOUSE OF WORSHIP . . . . . . . . . .5 BUSINESS DIRECTORY . . . . . . . . . . .6 SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . .12
See Advoz pg 11
R062825
See UCEA pg 5
Let us show you the difference a caring neighbor can make. Rothermel-Finkenbinder Funeral Home & Crematory, Inc. Palmyra | 717-838-9211 Travis S. Finkenbinder, Supervisor
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Currently, ECHOS, the Community Cupboard of Elizabethtown, the Clothing Barn, Elizabethtown Area Communities That Care (EACTC), and the Elizabethtown Area HUB are housed at CPOW. Doug Lamb, UCEA chaplain, said that the organization purchased the original property with a plan to expand. “We knew that all the programs and services we wanted to provide would not fit in the existing buildings,” he said, adding that UCEA was drawn to the property by the open baseball field and playground areas that were part of the campus. The number of clients who are served by the center has grown significantly since CPOW opened. Lamb reported that the food pantry had seen a large increase in clients, serving as many as 165 families per month. Jones noted that need for the winter shelter increased by 20% last year, when the organization served more than 70 individuals. In ECHOS’ past fiscal year, 800 individuals were helped. The organizations hope to have the larger winter shelter ready by January 2021.
If there is a platinum lining to the cancellation of large in-person events, it is this: Moving events online allows anyone, anywhere in the world, to attend, provided they have an internet connection. Kelly Brazzo, co-founder and cochair of the CureLGMD2i Foundation, has taken advantage of that opportunity in her plans for the 10th annual signature game night, which is the organization’s largest fundraising event. “People from all over the country are signing up,” Brazzo said. “The majority are people with the disease who haven’t been able to attend in the past because of travel limitations.” Brazzo predicted that more than 300 people will log on for the online event on Saturday, Oct. 24, rather than the usual 130 to 150 who have attended previous years’ events at Eden Resort and the Lancaster Elks. One of those people will be Dallas, Texas, resident Melissa Grove, who will serve as the master of ceremonies. Grove is a therapist and a professional speaker with a background in
theater arts. She also has limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2i (LGMD2i), a genetic condition that results in weakness and muscle wasting, particularly in the shoulder and hip areas. It is a progressive disease and can result in significant cardiovascular, respiratory, and overall physical complications. Grove was diagnosed at 18 and is now 52. She runs a $2 million nonprofit in North Texas but has begun making plans for her transition out
Miller-Finkenbinder Funeral Home & Crematory Elizabethtown | 717-367-1543 Thomas W. Ford, Supervisor
Fager-Finkenbinder Funeral Home & Crematory, Inc. Middletown | 717-944-7413 Alana A. Ace, Supervisor