Buy Local program to mark second anniversary
Announced on Earth Day 2010, Fayette County’s Buy Local Program will mark its second anniversary with a week-long series of events.
Robert Junk, Fay-Penn Economic Development Council local economy manager, announced the schedule at Fay-Penn’s quarterly board meeting Friday morning.
“We announced this on Earth Day and we are tying our anniversary celebration to it again,” he said.
Junk said the Buy Local campaign has been very successful. Part of the program focused on establishing farmers markets throughout the county. Junk said those will reopen July 4. There will be six located in Uniontown, Connellsville, Ohiopyle, Masontown, Brownsville and Scottdale, and possibly a seventh in the Fairchance or Smithfield area.
Buy Local also will have a display at the Fayette County Fair and will hold a Buy Local summit Sept. 15 at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
“We recently finished up the first round of grants in the Community Reinvestment Fund,” Junk added, explaining that participating Buy Local merchants contribute to the fund each month. Grants of up to $1,000 are made from the fund.
Junk was recently elected president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union (PFU), an organization he led in the 1990s. He said he will continue his work at Fay-Penn and that the PFU state office will be located at Fay-Penn’s offices.
“This should complement what I do at Fay-Penn,” Junk said.
Meanwhile, the events during the Buy Local Network Earth Week Celebration will be as follows:
n A tree planting and landscape cleanup will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. April 16 at Highlands Hospital in Connellsville.
n A presentation of the Evergreen Award will be held from 11 to 11:30 a.m. and a free Green Tea and Lemonade Happy Hour will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at Bud Murphy’s in Connellsville on April 17.
n An ice cream social will be held in Ohiopyle for the benefit of the Fayette County Fair recycling initiative from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. April 18.
n My OWN Campaign Equal Pay Day Rally will be held at the State Theatre Center for the Arts in Uniontown from 4:30 to 7 p.m. April 19.
n The Uniontown Hospital Green Team will hold a radio broadcast from 11 a.m. to noon April 20.
n Celebrity bartenders and free Green Tea and Lemonade will be offered at Bud Murphy’s from 7 to 9 p.m. April 21.
n A screening of “Earth,” a Disney nature film and community picnic with Earth Day activities, will be held from noon to 6 p.m. April 22 at Penn State Fayette.
For more information on the Buy Local program, call 724-437-7913 or visit online at www.buylocalfayette.org.