Huntingdon Area School District 

K-12 Learner Showcase

The Huntingdon Area School District has two upcoming events that they would like to invite you as a parent or community member of the district, the first is related to school safety. They are requesting your presence to join them as they provide you an overview of their emergency operations plan. This will take place Thursday, March 15 from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. in the High School Auditorium. 

The second event is their learner showcase. On Monday, March 26 from 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. in the Middle School, their staff and learners K-12 will be providing examples of their learning experiences. Please come and join them! 

GoDezi

GoDezi needs your assistance. They are conducting a survey and want you to participate! There is a chance to win ride credit worth $5, $10 or $50! To participate in the survey, please click here. 

Youth Leadership Conference

On Friday, March 2 we held our Annual Youth Leadership Conference. Huntingdon Area High School was our host this year. We began the day with a welcome from Huntingdon's Superintendent, Fred Foster. The students had breakfast and then we did an ice breaker event with them. Terry Anderson from Juniata College then presented on  "Creating Your Own Opportunity" and had the students list their talents and what activities they participated in. They then had to identify problems with those activities and begin to think of ways to solve their issues. The students were in five groups and four of the groups determined that the schools do not come together enough. They only see each other once a year during CHAMP. They decided they wanted to create other events through the year. The other group determined time management was an issue and wanted to create an app to assist with their time. We had Corey Brumbaugh from Brumbaugh Lumber, Kathy Hall from Huntingdon County CareerLink and Lisa Cirignano from Westminster Woods on a Business Leadership Panel who answered questions from the students. The panel also had questions for the students and engaged them in a great discussion. After their lunch we had Tammy Stuber from Juniata College who presented on Situational Leadership and how being a leader may mean taking different roles such as being a follower in different situations. Matt Baer from CHAMP and HAHS then did a presentation on "For the Love of CommUNITY" for the students. Matt had the students act on their plans for hosting events throughout the year to bring the schools together. They have decided to meet four times a year with various events. He also had them identify positives and negatives about their schools and community in their eyes. Once they identified their negatives, they had to decide which one they would like to take action to turn into a positive. We will be following up with the students and helping them make their plans and take action on their projects. To end the day, we had Huntingdon County Commissioner, Mark Sather, come and give the students a pep talk about putting their leadership potential to work. 

Winter Blues Recap

On Sunday, March 4 we hosted our Annual "Shake Off the Winter Blues" event at the Huntingdon Country Club. We had the wonderful band Flight 19 provide entertainment for the evening. Retired radio personality Jay Randyll came all the way from Myrtle Beach to emcee for us! 

Huntingdon Elks Lodge #976 won the People's Choice Award for the "Taste of Huntingdon County" for the second year in a row!

Rotary Club of Huntingdon sold the most raffle tickets and will receive an additional $100! 

Lisa Bigalow won the raffle prize which was a gold iPad! 

Congrats to Bob Perks Cancer Assistance Fund for the best decorated table!

We'd like to thank our sponsors for making this event possible. 

Event Sponsor-Valley Rural Electric

Prize Sponsor-Juniata College

Marketing Sponsor-Mutual Benefit Group

Cocktail Sponsor-John R. Wald Company

Entertainment Sponsors-Containment Solutions and Fairfield Inn & Suites Huntingdon Raystown Lake

Decoration Sponsor-Bumgardner & Flasher Oil

Patron Sponsors-A Stitch In Time, Orbisonia Hardware, Inc. and Huntingdon County Career and Technology Center

Thank you to Mary Jane Smith for capturing pictures of the evening. 

On The Job Training Program

• Cuts the cost of wages for employers by a minimum of 50% during the training time.
• Reduces the employer's costs for advertising and recruitment.
• Allows employers to make all hiring and firing decisions.
• Guarantees a quick referral process.
• Requires minimal paperwork.
• May involve a single placement, a number of people for one type of job, or a variety of jobs. 

• Post the job on the CareerLink system.
• A search is then conducted of the eligible applicant pool for people who match the characteristics set by the employer. The employer is then provided the information about potential candidates in the manner in which they have requested. 
• The employer decides whom they want to hire and a possible start date. The Business Services staff is notified about the circumstances of the hire. 
• The employer and the Business Services Representative negotiate a contract, which includes a training plan, length of training and costs to be reimbursed to the employer for providing the training. It is important to note that this contract MUST be in place BEFORE an eligible client begins working or the opportunity to secure funding will be lost. 

The Chamber is now offering use of our Bulk Mail Permit for FREE to our members. Bulk Mail Permits cost $250.00 per year. If you are interested in using the Bulk Mailing Stamp, we will walk you through the process to make it easy for you. You will still have to pay postage. 

If you are interested in saving money on your electric bill, please contact ymartin@huntingdonchamber.com or 814-643-1110 to get connected with the program endorsed by 120 chambers of commerce in PA and 80 Harrisburg based associations. OnDemand Energy manages 6 billion kWh in PA. There is no cost or obligation involved with seeing how much money your business or organization can save. In many cases it has been quite a significant savings. OnDemand Energy can also review your gas savings options with you. 

You are now able to be the exclusive sponsor of our weekly e-newsletter. The cost is $200 a quarter and includes your name in the email heading as the sponsor and an ad (2 in. wide and 3 in. tall) at the top of the left column of the newsletter. 

If you only want to have an ad (2 in. wide and 2 1/2 in. tall) in the left column, the cost is $100 per quarter or $300 per year. Please continue to share your events and special news and we will include that information for free. Contact mlocke@huntingdonchamber.com if you would like to include your ad in our e-newsletter or be the exclusive sponsor. 

Many of you have been asking about more opportunities to send email blasts to our database of nearly 1,000. Currently individual blasts are $50 for for-profit businesses and $25 for non-profits. You can now purchase one blast a week for a quarter for $200 or one blast a week for a year for $500. Non-profits pay $100 for the quarter or $250 for the year. Contact mlocke@huntingdonchamber.com if you are interested in taking advantage of this special opportunity. 

This group is being brought to you at the request of HCCC members during the most recent survey. The HCCC Member to Member group is a closed group for Chamber members only to post questions and important information that other members will find valuable. Please invite other Chamber members to join our group and share in discussions. 

If you have any business news and updates, achievements, awards or recognitions that you would like to be included, it can be done for FREE! If you have an event that is free or all the proceeds are being donated to a non-profit as a fundraiser, we'll include it for FREE! If you'd like to include a promotion or a money making event or non-profit fundraiser where proceeds will benefit the organization's operations, we charge a small fee. (Profit - $25 and Non-Profit - $10) Contact MacKenzie Locke at 814-643-1110 or mlocke@huntingdonchamber.com if you're interested in including an article.