In each of our towns it seemed like October was the month for getting things done. We all contributed to each town in some way. It was great getting all of us together to get some important projects done, and having fun while we did them. The month started out by the team visiting Monessen, PA to get a town tour & meet with some local community members to see what the town has been trying to improve on and work that has been completed by the community. It was nice to see other Monongahela River Towns striving to make their communities better. At the beginning of the month was an important chance for the River Towns to show what we have been up to. We had 2 potential funders come our towns so in order to get prepared for them we had several projects going on in each of the towns. In Fredericktown we helped a few local business owners paint their buildings, as well as one in Point Marion. Point Marion’s park also received some lovely planters in the town to help liven things up a bit. It really makes the park look better. Just these small things really help the town! RTOC has been trying to update our social media more frequently to get people more updated with what is going on. Besides updating facebook with pictures to give more of a visual of what we are getting our hands into, I was recently able to get Point Marion on Urbanspoon. This was a big accomplishment for me! So everyone can now be directed to Point Marion, instead of Uniontown, PA. Now, all of Point Marion’s restaurants are included. There was so fun to be had this month as well. The Izaak Walton League had Peggy Pings lead 2 paddles on Dunkard Creek this past month, which I attended. It was a perfect time of year to see the colors changing and get a different perspective on Dunkard. Each paddle had anywhere from 15-24 people in attendance, from all over WV & PA. It was a great time to get out and meet new people. I have continued going to the Saturday clean ups at Point Marion Park. We added a few things to our list of things to do as well. Vicki and I transplanted some flowers to an area of the park we are hoping to turn into a nature/wildflower area, instead of just a wild grassy hill. We were also able to clear out some large structures from the woods near the baseball fields. Another morning we headed over to the trail to WV as we heard there was some dumping going on. We found a huge hole that was filled with trash bags. So we went to town and cleared them out, all 15 of them. It was a little sense of pleasure. Considering our term here is slowly coming to an end it is making for more work to update for next years corps. I have been busy trying to update all of my towns documents and other plans. The Point Marion Action Team met for the last time this month as well. It was great, we were able to delegate some activities and projects to members to work on throughout the winter. We also had a meeting with Peggy Pings about the recent announcement of the RTCA working with RTOC next year. This will be a great connection and fit for both organizations. It will get the corps out on the water more as well, which is always good.
