Tag Archives: pgh250

History Books – Making the Connections

Making the Connections Book Launch Party
Friday, April 17, 2009, 4-7 pm
Shadow Loung, 5972 Baum Blvd, East Liberty
RSVP on Facebook here.

One of the final events of the Pittsburgh 250 celebration was the community connections wrap up session back in December.  The afternoon turned out to be a lot more fun that I had anticipated.  As part of the Pittbsurgh 250 birthday celebration – the folks at the Sprout Fund helped to distribute over $1,000,000 in grants to communities around western PA to celebrate pride and progress in their community.

I was honored to serve on the grant making panel and hearing about the projects at the end of the year long birthday celebration exceeded all of my expections.  People came from all over the region to talk about the projects that took place in their communities to celebrate the 250th birthday and they had great stories to share and the sprout fund had a great story teller to document the stories too.   These stories were way more than just tales of an extended birthday party.  The community connections grants engaged people in more ways than just parties.  Sitting there in December I learned about all kinds of projects that happened from these grants – from mobile agriculture labs, Jazz communities, car car ministries and some very entertaining tales of fishing trips.

So the folks at the Sprout Fund wrangled up their story teller to  document these stories in a book which debuts tomorrow – Friday April 17, 2009 at a reception at the Shadow Lounge.

I stopped by the Sprout Fund office earlier this week for a sneak peek of the book which is titled Making the Connections – it is great – they have done an outstanding job of compiling and capturing the region in a convenient book format.

Stop by the Shadow Lounge to celebrate and pick up a copy or order one from the Sprout Fund’s website here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7h-Cogf_4Q&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

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PGH 250 Community Connections Wrap Up – Check out some of these projects!

City of PittsburghImage via WikipediaI know that you are probably saying that you have heard enough about Pittsburgh’s 250 Birthday – I agree that a year long party is really long.  One aspect of the birthday celebration is a number of grants to fund projects that represent pride and progress in the region.  I was honored to be party of the grant making process last year and I was truly blown away by the proposals.  The projects that have received funding have been really great.

Check out some of these great projects at the Community Connections event on Monday, December 13,  2008 at the Science Center.  I will be on one of the panels that will be discussing the projects.  There will be a reception following.  I am looking forward to learning more about some of the other funded projects.

Pittsburgh 250: Making the Connections
Program Begins: 3:00pm, Reception Begins: 5:00pm
Carnegie Science Center, One Allegheny Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA

The Sprout Fund invites you to mark one year since the announcement of the grant awardees by attending Pittsburgh 250: Making The Connections.

Join scores of other Community Connections volunteers, project managers, foundation supporters, and more in both celebrating the success of this year’s initiative and continuing its work. Panel discussions will look at what has happened, and what will continue happening thanks to Community Connections.

And afterwards, while listening to the thematically-aligned sounds of the Newlanders, you’ll have a chance to continue the process of connecting with your peers in the region and within Southwestern Pennsylvania’s community organizing, non-profit, and fundraising worlds

RSVP: communityconnections [at] sproutfund.org or 412.325.0646

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Links Worth a Look – December 1st

Here are some links/articles/blog posts that are worth a look:

Click here to see more links we like.

Links Worth a Look – October 28th

Here are some links/articles/blog posts that are worth a look:

Click here to see more links we like.

Fort Ligonier Days – 250th Anniversary of the Battle

Fort Ligonier 2006.Image by ryanophilly via FlickrEach year thousands of people head to Ligonier – just a quick 60 minute drive from Pittsburgh for a huge celebration that commemorates the battle of Ligonier which was one of the battles of the French and Indian War.   The fort is still there and you can even watch a reenactment of the battle. I try to make it to Fort Ligonier Days each year for the parade on Saturday Morning and the food – it is the most amazing festival food I have ever found.

I definitly don’t want to miss the 250th Anniversary celebration at this years Fort Ligonier days.  The fun starts on Friday morning, the parade is on Saturday and the events run through Sunday.

All of the details with a complete schedule is available here.

You can watch the battle reenactments at 2 & 4 on Saturday and Sunday at the Fort.

The other reason to make the drive to Ligonier is the fall foliage – this is the perfect time of year to see the spectacular colors of leaves.  I will be looking for candy corns and pumpkins and some apple cider too.

While you are in Ligonier you MUST stop in to see Joe’s Bar – this place is spectacular, a different kind of spectacular than the leaves, but spectacular. Joe’s has one of the largest collections of taxidermy in the US – see pictures here.  More pictures here and here. Continue reading →