Leadership Washington County: A busy few months

Written by Tara Bockstanz

Leadership Washington County Class #36 and graduates, alike, have been very busy over the last few months. LWC Class #36 has participated in three of their Regional Program days exploring regions of the county including Williamsport/Halfway, Clear Spring/ Hancock and Boonsboro/Sharpsburg. Each program day was meticulously planned by classmates to make sure each day was educational, engaging, and interesting.

In March, The Williamsport team comprised of Meredith Reeves, David Brooks, Samantha Mellott, Holly Meyers, Robyn Sumner, Jana Palmer, Laurie Chrzanowski, and Frank Vincent began their program day at Tech High. A delicious breakfast was provided by the culinary students and students provided an amazing tour of the programs that are offered to WCPS students. The Class then trekked to Marty Snook Park in the snow/rain to visit the new enhancements at Marty’s Mythical Woods. Following the (cold) outdoor adventure LWC Class #36 loaded buses and traveled to Brooke’s House and then down to

Williamsport where we visited local shops, the Banking Mansion and C&O Headquarters. The team ended their day at Elmwood Farm Bed and Breakfast where they heard from Linda Ebersole, LWC Class of 2011#24, about the Bowman Foundation & Bowman Business Development.

Following Linda, Lettie and Selena Wilkes spoke about their ventures with Port 44 and Elmwood Farm Bed and Breakfast. Thank you to everyone that took time out to share their passions with LWC Class #36!

April brought us the Clear Spring/ Hancock Regional Day led by Lauren

Rappaport, Dawn Bragunier, Kelli Tencer, Peggy Rankin, Nicole Myers, Kim Gembe, Kristie Carbaugh, and Jodi Ryan. This Regional team started their day at Miller’s Farmstead on Route 40. The team arranged for classmates to hear from a few community notables including Ernst Market, J.A. Horst&Sons Diary and Excavating, Para-Ag LLC and the Washington County Sheriff, Brian Albert, LWC Class of 2021-#34. Following the panel discussion, the class visited Fort Frederick before venturing out west to Hancock for the remainder of regional day. In Hancock, classmates had the opportunity to visit with and hear from local businesses, law enforcement, and local government in the area. The class really appreciated the inside look to the western region of Washington County and the team did a fabulous job highlighting the area!

Then on May 12, LWC Class #36 finished up their Regional Program Days in South County. The team was led by Annaston Cree, Sarah Nadeau, Ashton Vattelana, Cherish McMillan, Carrie Tressler, Justin Price, Shelia Evers and Lynnae Messner. The weather was perfect for outdoor exploration of the southern portion of Washington County. The class visited a variety of places including Washington Co. Agricultural Education Center, Antietam National Battlefield, Shafer Park, Sharpsburg Museum of History/ Library, Main St. in Boonsboro and Big Cork Winery. The class enjoyed their time outdoors engaging in the fabulous day planned by their classmates. Huge shout out to this Regional Team and both sponsors, Fiserv & Wright Gardner Insurance, for a job well done! The class traveled to Rocky Gap Resort on June 2-3 for their closing retreat for a time of reflection, sharing and planning on how they will continue to give back to Washington County post-graduation from the program.

Leadership Washington County graduates have also stayed engaged with the program and with each other over the last few months. We have had several Graduate events including two

Behind the Scenes events exclusively for Graduate Members. On April 19, Graduate Members spent a fabulous afternoon outside for the Behind the Scenes event with Maryland Department of Natural Resources! Area Manager, Tanner Brown, provided us with a wealth of knowledge about wildlife management, outdoor recreation, food plotting, prescribed fires, and invasive plant species. The presentation was enlightening and provided our grads with a wealth of knowledge about the management of natural resources in Washington County. The following week, graduates gathered at Meinelschmidt Distillery in Downtown Hagerstown for a fun night of Trivia with Pour House Trivia. Each team did a fantastic job displaying their knowledge of useless information! If you missed out on Trivia Night, you missed a fantastic night of laughter amongst friends!

On May 31, we held our last Behind the Scenes event of the 2022-23 Program year in Williamsport with The Wilkes sisters and Port 44. Port 44 is spearheading much needed economic development on Conococheague Street in Williamsport. The team has brought several new businesses to the area includ- ing Lotus Moon Café, Still Smokin’ BBQ, soon-to-open bakery, bicycle shop and roof top bar. In addition to these amazing businesses they have also renovated living spaces to provided luxury living in downtown Williamsport. Following our time with Port 44, LWC graduates gathered for Happy Hour at Cushwa Brewing Co. to celebrate the end of LWC’s 36th year! We had a wonderful time catching up with friends and making new connections with grads from other classes! We cannot believe Year #36 has come to a close but we are super excited to announce LWC Class of 2023-#37 in July!

To find out more about Leadership Washington County, our application process and upcoming events, visit leadershipwashingtoncounty.org.

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