About
It all came to life, appropriately enough, at a local café. At Webster’s—a shop that sells sandwiches made with bread from Gemelli, scones from Pleasant Gap baker Clare Traynor, and books from local authors—three women, one transplanted from the West Coast, the other two from the East Coast, spent an hour talking about how great life was in the middle of Pennsylvania.
Farms. “Have you tried Tait’s blackberry jam?” Restaurants. “Otto’s has grass-fed burgers.” Shops. “I use Stitch Your Art Out in Pine Grove Mills.” Artisans. “Is that a Holly Berry bag?” And so on and so on.
We should have been hashing out marketing plans, Web development, and potential partners. But we couldn’t stop talking about the people, products, and businesses that are nowhere else but here. In our backyard.
Now that we’ve launched a site, we’re inviting the rest of the community to join the conversation. The mission of Homegrown Happy Valley is to link consumers to local businesses, artisans, entrepreneurs, service providers, and farms. We want people to share their own favorite places. To spread the word about new businesses and cool events. To enrich each other.
It’s a self-serving goal. This is our home, one we happen to think is pretty cool. But that charm is dependent on us, members of the community who do our part every day when we open our wallets and spend our money on products, businesses, and services produced or sold by our neighbors. At Homegrown Happy Valley, local is what matters.
Homegrown Happy Valley’s logo was designed by Elody Gyekis. Elody was born in Lewisburg, PA and grew up in Penns Valley, PA. She is currently finishing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Penn State with a double concentration in Ceramics and Drawing/Painting with minors in both Sociology and Civic and Community Engagement. In addition to her personal studio art, Elody has been involved in community art as a community mural organizer since she was 18. She has three murals in inner-city Harrisburg and one in rural central Pennsylvania that have all together involved close to 600 people and the total square footage could cover more than half a football field.
