PHOTO PROVIDED Jon Plessinger, Clinton County Director of Emergency Services, leads the current Leadership Clinton County class on a tour of the 911 Center.

LOCK HAVEN — It’s an exciting time for Leadership Clinton County as the 13 members of the current group will be the 25th class to graduate, marking an auspicious achievement for our community.

To date, 330 people have graduated from the 9-month leadership program which is dedicated to creating leaders and stewards for and of our local community.

The Leadership Clinton County program is a constituent program and subsidiary of the Clinton County Economic Partnership.

Prior to 1999, Clinton County stakeholders and leaders had been recognizing the growing need for leadership training in our community. They correctly identified the growing threat of “brain drain” — otherwise known in today’s less personable language as Human Capital Flight.

Plainly stated, people who had talents, skills and education were leaving their communities for better opportunities and taking their talents, education, skills and wallets away with them. It remains a significant problem for most small communities, especially rural ones such as ours.

PHOTO PROVIDED John Gradel and Angelic Hardy, of Commonwealth University-Lock Haven, speak to Leadership Clinton County participants about working with boards, committees and finances.

However, in 1999, several community partners including the Clinton County Economic Partnership, the City of Lock Haven’s Federal Enterprise Community, the Penn State Cooperative Extension and dozens of other community stakeholders began to collaborate and ultimately created the program that endures today.

The first began in 2000 with the inaugural class graduating 12 participants in 2001.

The program has evolved over, and undergone, some change these past 25 years but the core principles have remained unchanged are:

1. Recognize their own leadership potential and identify the ways they may use their abilities to benefit their communities.

2. Develop networks among themselves and with other local leaders that will help them in their leadership roles.

LISA SCHROPP/THE EXPRESS Mrs. Garbrick and Mrs. Bashore helped kindergarten students from Lock Haven Catholic School deliver 74 boxes of Cheerios that they collected from the entire school with assistance from Leadership Clinton County’s Class of 2024.

3. Gain a deep understanding of Clinton County, and its challenges and opportunities. Develop an awareness of diverse institutions working in Clinton County to improve health, human services, education, economic and community development, natural resource management and the judicial system.

4. Gain the necessary skills to be successful leaders, such as effective group management and decision making, meeting management, conflict resolution, communications, fund-raising and working in teams.

5. Strengthen Clinton County’s working and living environment for current and future generations.

As the program enters its 25th year, new program director Ben Green, and a graduate himself, is optimistic for the future.

“Firstly, I want to thank the previous program director, April Henry. April wasn’t just the director when I graduated the program, but had been there since the beginning. She was the one who got the program started and was its steward for over 24 years,” Green said. “Her hard work and dedication, along with all of those who have contributed these past 24 years, paved the way in creating such a successful program that has created so many leaders in our community. I’m excited to continue that tradition.”

Green touched on how the program had an effect on his own life, being a graduate.

“As a program graduate myself, I know its importance to our community. I know its importance to the graduates themselves. Every one of my classmates and everyone I’ve met through the program all share a bond,” he said. “It’s difficult to articulate, but there’s this sense that because of the program, we all recognize that we’ve changed or grown, whether it be a little or a lot, personally or professionally, it happens.”

The positive impact the program can have is something Green feels can’t be understated.

“We’ve seen people mortified of public speaking who literally would rather have had a root canal give an impassioned speech to a full room nine months later. We’ve seen introverts that seem like they don’t want to be known practically become comedians,” he said. “We’ve seen stubborn Type-A personalities take a breath and admit that their way wasn’t the best way and we’ve seen and heard from so many inspiring people.”

“I’m excited to see the changes and challenges ahead and hopeful to keep the program current and relative in a quickly changing world,” he concluded.

The program is a nine month long course beginning in September and ending in May exposing class participants to almost every segment of our community. It begins with a “leadership retreat” where participants quickly become immersed in learning about themselves, their classmates, communication skills and the skills required to be a leader. Over the course of the program, participants engage with and have modules where they learn Public Speaking/Volunteer Board Participation, the History of Clinton County and its resources, Health & Human Services, Media and Public Relations, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Education, Economic Development and Agriculture. All of these modules are supported by excellent volunteer presenters and speakers with many of the sessions being hands-on tours of local facilities, to name just a few of the onsite tours: the Wayne Township Landfill, Clinton County Government, the Heisey Museum, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy Gas Transmission Plant.

Once participants have completed the program, they can then join the Leadership Clinton County Alumni Association to continue their involvement for years after post-graduation. The association provides further opportunities for networking, facility tours and camaraderie.

The program is primarily funded through the generosity of contributions from local businesses and industry who recognize the importance of the program to both our community and their employees. Often our corporate sponsors have at least one or two participants in the class and after the nine months, are rewarded with highly motivated and well networked employee-leaders eager to contribute to both their career and their community. The program is also sustained through traditional fundraising events and the alumni association itself, offering scholarships on a need basis for participants.

The program is administered by a full-time coordinator and advised by a council of community stakeholders, most of whom are program graduates themselves.

To learn more about the program or to apply, visit www.clintoncountyinfo.com. Applications are available online and due July 1 of each year.

We wish to thank this year’s major program sponsors for their support: Clinton County Commissioners; Clinton County Community Foundation; Clinton County Economic Partnership; Geisinger Jersey Shore Hospital; First Quality; Leadership Clinton County Alumni Association; M&R Contracting, Inc.; M&T Bank; The PPL Foundation and Terrapin Care Station.

We also wish to thank all of the presenters, hosts, advisors and employers for their contributions both economic and in-kind.

Clinton County Economic Partnership

——

212 N. Jay St.,

Lock Haven, PA 17745

570-748-5782 / www.clintoncountyinfo.com