July has been a month for traveling and public art. While the month started with a clean-up of the unfinished portion of the Sheepskin Trail from Point Marion to the West Virginia border, most of this month in Point Marion has been volunteering time on their public art project. While working on the project this month I have been asked to make glass mosaic flowers, kayakers, and the Monongahela River. The river has been the hardest to work on, and all of RTOC has been working together to get the glass to flow and blend the way a river would. It’s been a fun project to work on, and we will continue to help until the last piece of glass is glued down.
I’ve had the opportunity to go home this month, and had a busy weekend with friends. It was nice to spend a day with my girlfriends trying on and purchasing bridesmaids dresses for our friends wedding. I got to go waterskiing with my aunt and grandparents, spend time in my parents garden, and even bring some of my friends on TTOC down to meet my parents and spend a night at my house. All in all it was a successful trip home.
Coming back to Connellsville I immediately had to get in the work truck and head to our Regional Action Town Meeting in Greensboro. This meeting focused on River Town Program’s 4 key strategic plans for the next 18 months and started the conversation with all the towns about possibly pursuing a regional non-profit that will continue to exist and be a source for finding funds after the River Town Program leaves. I know this made the members of my town that were there happy. They have been talking about this for a while and it is good that the conversation has now expanded out of just one community and into all of them.
I also attended All Good Music Festival in Ohio this month with 4 other interns, a few from both corps. It was my first music festival and I LOVED it. I love to camp and I love live music, so being able to camp and just walk over to a stage and watch live music was really awesome. I got to hear bands that I’d never heard of before, some I barely knew, and some I know very well and love. I have to say that I will definitely be attending more music festivals in the future.
The last week and a half of the month we spent going to public art workshops in Point Marion, clearing view corridors and removing invasive species in California, and cleaning and weeding the lock wall in Rice’s Landing. This month was full of trips and work days in our towns, so I think it was a very successful and fun month!
