Three is better than one
A bit of history and looking ahead:
The past: We (actually meaning our school district) started as one. If memory serves correctly, Hazelton school district was once identified as Williamsport School District #6. When our neighboring Moffit School closed due to declining enrollment, the Hazelton-Moffit School District was formed. Later, the Braddock School also closed. A portion of that district was added to H-M School District and it became Hazelton-Moffit-Braddock - or as we prefer to call it - H-M-B.
With the end of any era -in this case, the Moffit and Braddock school districts - is a deep feeling of loss and a great deal of sadness. Those feelings all have to be worked through. Not always easy but always necessary.
Jump ahead to the present. Our individual communities are still here. We take pride in what we have. We all keep working to make each of our communities better but something has happened through the years. Where once we were three separate communities - now we are one in many ways, all because of reorganizing school districts.
What brings all this to mind? Our June issue of the Hazelton Newsletter (our own monthly “newspaper” which had its beginning in 1991) was mailed out this week. The paper is mailed free of charge to all H-M-B postal patrons. This month we put out a special edition and also mailed it to postal patrons in Sterling/Mckenzie, Driscoll and Menoken. The purpose of the paper from the beginning was to promote not only the Hazelton community and businesses but also those of Moffit and Braddock - what we prefer to call our tri-community.
Let me explain why we have this special feeling about H-M-B (the communities, not just the school). We have expanded our horizons by getting to know the people better - yes, because of the school - and as we have become better acquainted, there is a closer bond. Now we don’t all go our separate ways. We celebrated each town’s Centennials. We’re excited about Braddock’s 125th celebration in 2009; we’re excited about Moffit’s plans to upgrade their Community Center and renovate their ball diamond; we’re excited about the possibility of reopening the Hazelton grocery store and finding occupants for our Prairie Mall.
We have become more aware of what it takes to keep our tri-communities alive by incorporating what we have; and we are learning that we must take action to make changes that will improve all of our lives.
If we sit back and wait for something to happen, it definitely will. It already has. I don’t know the population of Moffit and Braddock in their heyday. Hazelton once had a population of close to 600 back in the 1950s. For some reason we didn’t hear the alarm go off until we had dropped to 240.
What a wakeup call! How thankful we should be (and are) that the great majority of those living in the community support efforts to rebuild the town instead of having a ‘this is a dying town’ attitude. A lot of people have put in a lot of effort since 1991, always searching for new ways to help revitalize the town. For that we are grateful. They have a vision of what can be - not what could be. Most recently, the Horizons program gave us a boost by reminding us that together we can.
So, back to our tri-community. What I am trying to say in my own fumbling way (hey, that rhymes!) is that “three is better than one, but only because we are now three-in-one.”