Lock Haven Rotary Club distributes $12,000 to local nonprofits

Aug 16, 2023

Aug 4, 2023

Pictured, back row, Alison Kramer, with Lock Haven Rotary; Amy Kowatch, with Horses of Hope; Beth Bartlet and Brandon Ranck with the Lock Haven YMCA; Tammy Garrison, with the Ross Library and Keshia Conway with the Life Center/Merit House. Front row, Traci Fotorny with Boxes of Hope, Sara Phillips with the Lock Haven YMCA and Jackie Condor of the Life Centre/Merit House. BREANNA HANLEY/THE EXPRESS

LOCK HAVEN — The Lock Haven Rotary Club recently celebrated their 15th annual Great Island Triathlons, applauding sponsors, volunteers, municipal service groups and participants.

Brent Jones, Rotary member, spoke about the triathlon during a recent meeting at Great Island Presbyterian Church, indicating there were 70 participants this year who completed the course, swimming or kayaking, bicycling and running.

He also gave a shout out to Race Director Drew Talbot who was unable to attend the event, held Tuesday.

With generous sponsor donations, the Rotary was able to equally distribute $12,000 to five Clinton County nonprofit organizations.

Each organization was invited to speak about their non-profit and the work they do.

The first individuals to speak were Jackie Condor and Keshia Conway, representing Life Center/Merit House.

Conway explained the Life Center and Merit House, which serves women, children, families and men.

“The Merit House is specific to the men. It’s a walk-in shelter, first come first served. We can take four men at a time,” said Conway.

The Merit House is essentially an emergency overnight shelter for those struggling; clients are not permitted in the facility after 8 a.m. and are only allowed back in the facility at 6 p.m. for 30 consecutive nights.

“We supply snacks, cleaning products, laundry detergent, sheets, bedding, clothes — everything is based on donation. Thus far, we’ve been pretty fortunate to be able to supply the need,” said Conway.

The Life Center provides short-term temporary housing for families and individuals who are homeless or at risk for becoming homeless.

The center provides life-skills training for families and individuals, helping them become independent and self-sufficient.

“The Life Center mostly serves the families, women and children, but we do serve men at the Life Center if they present in a family setting. We have four rooms, two for families and two for single women. At any given time we can take up to 14 people,” said Conway. “That is referral based, so you must call 211 to be able to get into the Life Center shelter.”

Condor briefly spoke about grant funding and rental assistance programs.

“We have several that are prevention funding to prevent those households who are at imminent risk of homelessness as well as several programs that are designed specifically for those who are experiencing literal homelessness,” said Condor. “All of those referrals must come through 211 with the Housing Coalition.”

Households who are at risk of homelessness or are homeless in Clinton County can call 211 or text your zip code to 898-211 to connect 24/7 to a trained professional who will assess your housing needs.

Traci Fotorny, representing Boxes of Hope, spoke about her small non-profit that seems to be growing more and more popular by the day.

She is the founder and president of the nonprofit, and told the audience her story of why she began this initiative.

“I’m a breast cancer survivor. Back in 2017 I received a lot of kindness during my journey so I wanted to pay it forward. We send out care packages and mastectomy pillows free to anyone who has current breast cancer treatments to offer them hope and encouragement, and let them know that they’re not alone,” said Fotorny.

Boxes of Hope is also getting involved with advocacy for changes that need to be done regarding breast health and breast cancer services.

“We provide a listening ear sometimes,” said Fotorny, “They need to vent and talk to someone who knows because they’ve been there. We can help them sort through the overwhelming and confusing information that is thrown at you at the beginning. We don’t offer medical advice, we always refer them back to their doctors.”

At the time of the presentation, Boxes of Hope sent out 1,138 care packages and 739 mastectomy pillows to men and women in 49 states.

“We started going global by sending one to Canada,” added Fotorny, who explained that it is essentially just herself and her kids who package everything and send items out.

“I can get 100 requests a day… I had to temporarily suspend requests on our website for about five months so I could catch up. We had hundreds and hundreds of requests,” said Fotorny.

She gets the community involved as well. Fotorny hosts packing parties and sewing parties where the community can help put together the care packages and sew the pillows to ship out.

“This donation is wonderful,” Fotorny said to Rotary members. “It will help more than you realize. We’re small and just starting out. Thank you.”

Tammy Garrison, Executive Director of the Ross Library, spoke about the different programs that the library has to offer the community.

“We try to be a community hub, and a place for building community. We have meeting rooms, programs and events for adults and children,” said Garrison.

The first program she spoke about was “Girls who Code.” She was emotional as she spoke about how important it was for young girls to be getting involved in a typically male-dominated field such as coding.

Garrison mentioned a few other programs as well: the rainbow camp for Kindergarteners, a STEM program called “Let’s Make an Airplane,” adult “Crafternoons” and Lou Bernard’s wheelchair accessible historical tour of Lock Haven.

Garrison also mentioned the book sale coming up in September, noting those who want to avoid the chaos of the first day can pay $20 and come get their books the night before.

Garrison took the opportunity to explain to the audience what the money donated to them will be used for.

“We are so pleased to be a beneficiary of your hard work. We had a problem this summer with air conditioning in the children’s library — it went out. It was getting up to about 88 degrees in there which was not good for the staff or the kids. We had a fundraising drive to help pay for it, and this is going to help bridge the gap of some of what we didn’t earn,” said Garrison.

Amy Kowatch, representing Horses of Hope, gave a quick rundown of the nonprofit and how it all got started.

“Horses of Hope began about 15 years ago. Laurie Flanagan, our executive director, began with a handful of volunteers, three riders, a beautiful horse named Pumpkin and a lot of hope. We’ve grown today to an organization of more than 60 riders, 40 plus volunteers, a board of directors, instructors, coordinators, lesson-helpers, feeders and six beautiful horses,” said Kowatch.

Currently, Horses of Hope is located in Mackeyville and leases Belle Springs Farm on Stoltzfus Lane. The farm is a 10 acre property with a seven stall barn, outdoor arena with breathtaking views, a round pen, walking trail and pastures.

They have numerous specialty programs, including a therapeutic riding program for anyone with special needs, a veterans program titled Heroes and Horses, an “in hand connection” program where individuals can have a bonding experience with a horse without riding them, community riding and so much more.

“Fifteen years in the making and we’re still growing. There’s so much to be thankful for, especially the community support that we have. We can continue what Laurie envisioned,” said Kowatch.

The final presenter was Beth Bartlett from the Lock Haven YMCA, who brought with her two employees, Sara Phillips and Brandon Ranck.

Bartlett first spoke on the YMCA’s role in the triathlon every year.

“We have been volunteers at the triathlon since its inception,” said Bartlett. “Long before it became the Rotary’s. It’s a great event and we enjoy helping. It’s a fun day — to see the riders, bikers and swimmers. We’re very thankful that we’re able to help out.”

“We used the money last year for our pool campaign. Our pool is now open! Since we opened in mid-March we’ve had a lot of delays… We opened up with the help of Sara in March and she’s been wonderful,” said Bartlett.

She also talked about the community days at the pool where members of the community can come in and try the pool. During one of the community days Bartlett noted there were over 100 people who attended throughout the day.

One of the struggles Bartlett spoke about was the desperate need for lifeguards.

“The only place that offers a lifeguard course is Williamsport, so it makes it really tough. Sara is hoping to get her LGI certification which will allow her to be able to teach the lifeguarding course to future lifeguards,” said Bartlett.

The funds from this donation are hopefully going to be put towards a new chairlift for disabled members who use the facilities.

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