It was a very busy summer of community engagement for Associate Professor of History, Michael Schroeder, who’s in a leadership position in five distinct but related non-profit local community organizations:
As Co-President of the Friends of Old Annville (FOOA, at www.fooa.org), he coordinated the 28th Annual Historic Old Annville Day on Saturday, June 11, working with Annville Township officials, the Public Works Department, local businesses, and others, as reported in the July-August issue of FOOA’s bi-monthly newsletter, The Landmark (for which he serves as chief editor).
As a member of the Quittie Creek Nature Park Committee (a subcommittee of the Friends of Old Annville, but in practice functionally autonomous), he helped to clear the parkland, trails, and recently reconstructed streambanks of invasive species, and remove fallen trees and limbs from the trails; and worked with Annville Township, the Quittapahilla Watershed Association, and the Doc Fritchey Chapter of Trout Unlimited in developing plans for a handicapped-accessible fishing area in the Nature Park just east of the Spruce Street bridge.
As Vice President of the grassroots, non-profit citizens organization Lebanon Pipeline Awareness (LPA), he participated in a wide range of activities, including staffing informational tables at National Night Out in Campbelltown and at the Lebanon County Fair; having letters, op-ed pieces, and press releases published in the Lebanon Daily News; marching with members of LPA’s sister organization, Lancaster Against Pipelines, along the route of the proposed Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project in Lancaster County; organizing public meetings for landowners and others; and meeting with public officials and bodies, including the Lebanon County Commissioners, Sen. Mike Folmer, and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission – all in the effort to raise public awareness about the ongoing pipeline revolution in Lebanon County.
As Executive Director of the Quittapahilla Creek Garbage Museum in Annville, he hosted the Garbage Museum’s Fifth Annual Grand Opening on Saturday, June 11, and was especially heartened to welcome a record number of visitors to the museum, including several from overseas, as well as a group of children and parents from Lebanon Scoutreach in Palmyra.
As Co-President of the Quittapahilla Watershed Association (QWA), he helped to initiate a community outreach effort in Cleona for a stream restoration project similar to the one along Quittie Creek in Annville; participated in the Snitz Creek Waterfest in the Creekside neighborhood in South Lebanon; staffed a QWA table at Historic Old Annville Day; and kept the QWA’s website up-to-date, including photo-documenting the stream restoration project (at http://www.quittapahillawatershedassociation.org > Photos & Documents > Restoration 2014-2016).
Mike, who invites faculty members and others interested in participating in any of these organizations, at whatever level, to be in touch.