SCHUYLKILL HAVEN — Schuylkill County’s high school students are working on projects to tackle blight in their communities.
More than 100 students came up with projects Thursday as part of the fourth annual Schuylkill Youth Summit in the John E. Morgan Auditorium at Penn State Schuylkill. Blight was chosen as the theme at last year’s event.
Before developing their projects with classmates, the students received guidance from community members.
Micah J. Gursky, Tamaqua borough councilman and executive director of the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership, was featured as the guest speaker for the event. He talked to the students about the revitalization efforts in the borough over the past 30 years. Gursky said that everyone told him he had to leave the area to be successful, but he wanted to come back after graduating college and help improve the area.
“I knew a lot of things needed to be fixed, but I also knew growing up in the area that there are a lot of good people doing really good things,” Gursky said.
Gursky showed the students before and after pictures of blight projects in the borough.
“This is the community I remember growing up in ... and this is the community so many people worked so hard to create to give people a choice,” Gursky said. “You don’t have to stay in Schuylkill County, but it could be nice place.”
He said the solution to blight is not just demolition, but it also includes rehabilitation of properties. That was the case with the train station in Tamaqua that will soon feature a reopened restaurant and the borough’s historical district.
The students then participated in a question and answer session with Gursky and a panel of experts consisting of Mary Beth Dougherty, constituent relations for state Sen. Dave Argall’s office; Tom Palamar, administrator for the City of Pottsville; Alexa Kramer, education coordinator for the Schuylkill County Conservation District; and Darlene Dolzani, executive director of Schuylkill Keep It Pretty.
“(Gursky) really made an impression on the crowd and the panelists were very knowledgeable and willing to help,” Tyler Zimerofsky, a junior at Nativity BVM High School, said.
Students asked the panel about a variety of issues, including funding for projects, how to get started and dealing with private property.
“We had a lot of fun today and came up with a lot of ideas to help fight blight in our communities,” Zimerofsky, a member of the student executive committee for the event, said. He said they want to keep the youth in Schuylkill County and eliminating blight will help with that goal.
“It’s all about showing what the youth can do because we are so much more powerful than we think,” he said.
Students will be fighting blight in their communities throughout the year with the projects they designed and includes improving local playgrounds and parks, helping the elderly maintain their properties and establishing community gardens.
Commissioner Gary J. Hess, who spearheaded the project four years ago with other county officials and community organizations, said the students are acknowledging the positives in the county and want to make a difference in their communities.
“Every time I work with them, it invigorates me,” Hess said. “I always say that are better days are a head of us. Over the last four years, the students showed a leadership that has yet to come and we need to continue to nurture that.”
All the students signed a wood cut-out shaped like Schuylkill County with messages of hope. Kay Jones, executive director of Schuylkill’s VISION and facilitator of the event, called it the “Wall of Hope.”
“The kids are always creative and were really energized and empowered to do something within their communities,” Jones said. “I also think they are learning that there is a whole network of people and organizations in their communities willing to help.”