by Raymond Santillo, Ellwood City Chamber of Commerce Director
As many of you may know, I have recently been named Director of the Ellwood City Area Chamber of Commerce. I am very proud to lead this group of volunteers that serve our area. Their enthusiasm is what initially caught my interest and desire to join the Chamber.
I have been volunteering for our Ellwood City Area Public Library, Ellwood City Wolves, Car Cruise, Gobblers Gallop and Ledger Race, and the excitement at the Chamber Office was contagious for me.
I am asking residents in our Chamber area (Ellwood City, Wampum, Marion, Wayne, North Sewickley, Perry, Big Beaver, Franklin, Ellport, New Beaver and Koppel) to focus on the good we have. We have great schools, a local newspaper, wonderful businesses, active churches, a community radio station and neighborhoods where people know each other. We have a local library, hospital and newspaper. We also have beautiful rivers, ball fields and parks. Perhaps more importantly, we have local leadership that we need to support.
Let’s give our boroughs, schools and townships a chance to try new things and different approaches. They serve offices not for themselves but for the good of our community.
I conclude by stating: we have volunteer organizations that I would put up against any others. We have the Ellwood City Wolves, Rotary and Lions working and volunteering to benefit the Ellwood City Area Public Library and Ellwood City Revitalization for the betterment of the area at the Oktoberfest. We have strong PTO groups, a Carpenter’s Project group, a Kitchen Cabinet group, Ellwood City Community Enrichment, a Festival in Ewing Park, and many events and parades for families in town.
I thank all of our Chamber members and we greatly appreciate your support. As of April 14, 2016, we have 244 paid members and 56 of which are new 2016 members.
Lastly, I challenge you to share all of the good we have in the Ellwood City Area. Share this through letters to the editor, on social media or by word of mouth. This would generate a lot of contagious excitement and a more positive feeling about the Ellwood City Area. We have so much to offer!
Does mentioning a local newspaper twice in as many sentences mean you are grasping for straws?
In all seriousness, one can certainly get behind the sentiment of this letter. It is a mistake however, to excuse bad judgement and decisions, and to attempt to just sweep everything under the rug and proclaim “come on move along move along”. Are the voices that display criticism not attempting to do good for the community too? Is that not why people passionately debate their opinions? Why try to shut down this debate?
Look, I’m all for displaying the positives. It is a lovely area in terms of nature and having nice residents. No doubt. But we need to start attracting young professionals and business owners to the area. Instead of Mr. Santillo pulling out the pom poms, I’d love to get a discussion going about trying to attract new business to the area – about creating an environment where new families and young professionals would actually like to move to. Its a tough conversation, but it would be much more productive to look at all aspects – good and bad of the area, instead of just turning a blind eye to the negatives and acting like this is Lake Placid.