Look at the list of what’s in each basket!

The Derrick, May 29th

Communities throughout the area will mark Memorial Day with a series of remembrance services, parades and other events.

Here is a rundown of the weekend observances:

Franklin

Memorial Day activities in Franklin will begin at 9 a.m. with a service on the 13th Street Bridge to honor all Navy veterans. A service at 9:30 a.m. at Franklin Cemetery will follow.

The Memorial Day parade will begin at 10 a.m. Monday in the downtown. World War II veterans Lou Griffin, Renaldo T. Salas and Ed Vergith will serve as grand marshals. The parade line-up will begin at 9 a.m.

A ceremony at 11 a.m. in Bandstand Park will conclude the observance.

Oil City

The Oil City Memorial Day ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. Monday in Grove Hill Cemetery.

Larry Deal, a first sergeant with the Oil City National Guard, will be the guest speaker.

The Oil City Knights of Columbus will hold its annual Memorial Day Mass at 11 a.m. Monday at Calvary Cemetery near Oil City High School. The Mass will be moved to St. Joseph Church in the event of inclement weather.

Clarion

Craig E. Fleming American Legion Post 66 of Clarion and Clarion VFW Post 2145 will host a combined Memorial Day service at 11 a.m. Monday in the Clarion Cemetery on Second Avenue.

A short Naval memorial service will follow at Sgt. Carl F. Curran II Memorial Bridge.

Plumer

The Plumer Community Association will hold its annual Memorial Day service at 7 p.m. Sunday at Plumer Cemetery.

Knox

A luminaria and parade of veterans will begin at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Best Avenue entrance to Knox Union Cemetery. The parade will continue through Knox Community Park.

A 30-minute service conducted by the Rev. Karen Parsh from St. Paul Lutheran Church will follow.

The celebration to veterans is sponsored by the Knox Civic Club.

Rimersburg

The Rimersburg VFW and Shearer-Shick American Legion posts will host a memorial day service at 3 p.m. Sunday at Veterans Park. The service will be held at Rimersburg United Methodist Church in the event of inclement weather.

A 9 a.m. parade on Monday will start at Rimersburg Elementary School. A program will begin at Rimersburg Cemetery as soon as the parade arrives. The program will be held at 9 a.m. at Union High School in the event of inclement weather.

Lakeview

The Sandy Lake, Stoneboro and Lakeview communities will observe Memorial Day with a service at 10 a.m. Monday at Oak Hill Cemetery in Sandy Lake Township.

The guest speaker will be the Rev. Edmond C. Gresick, a U.S. Navy veteran who served in the Vietnam Conflict.

Those planning to attend are asked to take a lawn chair. The service will be moved to Lakeview United Methodist Church across from the cemetery in the event of inclement weather.

Emlenton

The Emlenton community Memorial Day service will be held at 10:15 a.m. Monday in Emlenton Cemetery.

The guest speaker will be the Rev. Paul Fetters, a professor and dean emeritus at Huntington University in Fort Wayne, Ind., and the title of his address will be “Remembering the What by the Why and the How.”

Rockland

A Memorial Day service will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Rockland Cemetery. The service will be moved to Rockland United Methodist Church if the weather is bad.

Bruce Switzer, who served in the U.S. Army, will be the guest speaker.

East Hickory/Tionesta

Memorial Day services will be observed Monday in both East Hickory and Tionesta. A service will be held at 9 a.m. at East Hickory Cemetery, then participants will form a parade and proceed to Riverside Cemetery around 10 a.m.

Marienville

The Marienville VFW will hold a Memorial Day service at noon Monday at North Forest Cemetery.

After participating in Junior Achievement programs, students see the important connections between education, career, salary and desired lifestyle. In the Venango Area volunteers from the business community have been serving in the classroom of local school districts for several year.

In 2000, JA Worldwide™ (Junior Achievement) launched JA Titan under its current name as a Web-based product. Set in the year 2035, JA Titan creates a world in which players are CEOs of their own companies.

During game play, students must run a manufacturing company and master six key business decisions: price of product, production levels, marketing expenses, research and development costs, capital investment level, and charitable giving. Various corporate assistants “help” the player through each phase, or “quarter,” of game play.

Success in JA Titan is measured by a “Performance Index,” an evaluation of each fictional company’s performance based on the following:

• Retained Earnings (50%)
• Supply and Demand Potential (20%)
• Productivity (10%)
• Market Share (10%)
• Growth (10%)

During game play, players attempt to achieve the highest Performance Index possible. At game end, the player with the highest company Performance Index wins.

At this year’s Venango Works Trade Show students and business people will team up to compete against each other, playing JA Titan.

Students from the Cranberry, Oil City and Titusville school districts will participate, with the first game starting at 12:05 on Friday, in the malls center court.  The second game will begin at 12:45.  Each game lasts 30 minutes.  You too can try your hand at JA Titan on the website http://titan.ja.org.

Please join us as Susan Williams, Executive Director of the Venango County Chamber of Commerce shares her knowledge and experience of using social networking tools, especially Facebook and Twitter as tools to promote your organization.
“Using Social Networking Tools To Promote Your Organization” is part of the Clarion/Venango County Professional Skills Development Series presented as a collaborative effort by the Keystone Community Education Council and Clarion University’s Division of Continuing Education, Main Campus and Venango Campus. The program is made up of 12, two-hour monthly sessions which alternate between locations in Clarion and Venango County. This 24-Hour certificate program gives you the opportunity to develop or enhance the professional skills needed to succeed in the workplace. The remaining programs in the series include: May 12, 2010 – Clarion, Dealing Effectively with the Toxic Employee, Gary Svetz, Svetz Consulting, LLC; June 9, 2010 – Venango, How to Prepare and Deal with Violence in the Workplace, Robert Daugherty and Mark Baughman; July 14, 2010 – Clarion, Your Mouth is Moving, But Are you Saying Anything?”: The power of words and the impact of effective verbal messages, Barry McCauliff; August 11, 2010 – Venango, How Can Soft Skills be so Hard? – Establishing a Strong Work Ethics Culture in your Workplace, Pam Watkins; and September 8, 2010 – Clarion, Moving Your Team Beyond Being Just a Group of People, Gary Svetz, Svetz Consulting, LLC.
To more information or to register for the Drugs in the Workplace or other programs in the series, please call the Keystone Community Education Council at 814-226-0626 or visit our website at www.keystonecec.org.

Trade Show Registration

Also be sure to join us at The Movies in Cranberry for a mixer sponsored by Hagan Business Machines and the Cranberry Mall, where we will celebrate the Business of the Year, Northwest Savings Bank and the Partner in Business, Clarion University – Venango Campus. The mixer will be held from 5-7 pm.

Registered Exhibitors

Alliance Of American Manufacturers
Barr’s Insurance
Belles Lettres Club
Changing Times Telephone Service
Clarion University-Venango Campus
Communications Center, Inc
CS Technologies Plus
Gonstead Family Chiropractic
Hagan Business Machines of Meadville, Inc.
Identity Studio & Design
Kellner’s Fireworks
Longaberger Consultant
Northwest Savings Bank Northside
Schaeffer’s Specialized Lubricants
Sherwin-Williams Co.
Singleton Family Chiropractic
Small Business Development Center
UPMC Northwest
Venango Training & Dev Ctr
WKQW  96.3 FM-1120 AM

It recognizes a non-profit, governmental or educational organization that has developed a close partnership with the business community as a means to achieve its mission.

The chamber has named Clarion University-Venango Campus to be the first recipient.

It will be honored, along with Northwest Savings Bank as Business of the Year, at a chamber gathering at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 22, at the Movies at Cranberry at the Cranberry Mall. It is the kickoff for the annual Venango Works Trade Show the following day.

The Chamber chose Venango Campus using criteria that include reputation, achievement, innovation, business leadership, excellence and support for the community. It also considered participation in private-public partnerships, bringing creative solutions to community challenges, innovative programs, partnerships, fundraising, marketing, regional promotions and improving the quality of life for area residents.

Venango Campus has “a history of being (an) outstanding organization in our region… and continues to seek ways to better serve the community,” said Susan Williams, executive director of the chamber.

Opportunities abound

“Venango Campus has been providing life-changing opportunities for the residents of Venango County and the region for 49 years,” said Christopher M. Reber, executive dean of the campus. “From the very beginning, when community leaders and members of the Oil City Area Chamber of Commerce envisioned the need for a higher education presence in Venango County, to the present, Venango Campus has been the product of community and university working together to advance the needs of the region.”

Recognition via the Partner in Business Award “by the organization that played such an integral role in the creation of the campus is truly an affirmation of our mission for which we are extremely grateful,” Reber said.

Time of growth

Venango Campus has more than doubled its enrollment in recent years due in large part to its growing network of educational partnerships with organizations in business, industry, health care, education and other sectors. Enrollment reached an all-time high in fall 2009, with more than 1,000 students enrolled in campus programs and a growth of almost 10 percent over the previous fall.

“Our partnerships allow us to meet the workforce needs of the region,” Reber said. “By educating future employees who are skilled in their technical fields and have the educational foundation to move into management positions, we help to keep jobs — and the people who need them — here at home.”

The applied technology department was launched in 2003 at the campus in response to a need for a technically skilled workforce with the preparation for career advancement. Utilizing a unique partnership model, students earn a Clarion University associate degree by completing academic courses at the campus and the technical component of the degree through approved technical education providers.

More than 100 students are now enrolled in the campus’ 23 applied technology program concentrations, and graduate job placement exceeds 93 percent.

The design of the program allows for virtually limitless expansion. A new concentration to prepare certified Web designers was recently launched, and concentrations such as agile robotics, wind energy technology and others are being considered.

A respiratory care program was created in 2006 after the critical regional and national shortage of respiratory therapists was brought to the attention of the university by UPMC Northwest.

Both programs earned full national accreditation in 2009.

Financial support

The campus has raised more than $10 million in recent years through gifts and grants to enable the school to add programs, support students through scholarships, renovate facilities and grow enrollment.

In 2009, $3.5 million in construction projects were completed at the campus, including the renovation and restoration of West End Pond, new locker rooms in the Robert W. Rhoades Center and the fourth and fifth buildings of the planned seven-building student apartment complex.

Programs are varied

Many new programs at the certificate, associate and bachelor’s degree levels have been added to the growing array of Venango Campus academic programs in recent years, and additional new bachelor’s and graduate programs are being planned. A Venango Campus Honors Program for students with high academic potential was developed, and the first students in that program graduated in May 2009.

Venango Campus is also a cultural and educational community center and provides an array of programs open free to the public.

The campus supports the community through continuing education and programs to provide enriched educational opportunities for residents of all ages. These programs are supported through a variety of grant funding.

“The community has been an extraordinary partner through Venango Campus’ years of evolution and growth,” Reber said. “The Partner in Business Award is a tribute to the many heroes in the region and at the university who have worked together to make the vision of highquality, higher education in Venango County a reality.”

Susan Williams (center), executive director of the Venango Area Chamber of Commerce stands with Lance Titus (left) of Northwest Savings Bank in Oil City and Chris Reber, executive dean of Clarion University-Venango Campus, Wednesday morning in the Chamber offices on Main Street in Oil City. Both Northwest Savings Bank and Venango Campus were named Venango Area Chamber of Commerce 2010 businesses of the year.

The bank will be recognized at a chamber mixer set for 5 p.m. Thursday, April 22, at the Movies at Cranberry at the Cranberry Mall. It will serve as the kickoff for the annual Venango Works Trade Show the next day.

The chamber selects the Business of the Year based on active membership in the chamber, support for the community, reputation for customer service and reliability, major achievements in a given year, innovation, business leadership and excellence.

Susan Williams, executive director of the chamber, said the winner exemplifies “the traits that lead to success.”

“We’re all elated to be named business of the year,” said Lance Titus, manager of the Oil City North Side office of Northwest Savings. “Northwest has served Venango County for well over a century, and we do our very best to be a full-service, local community bank with personal, friendly service, convenience and fast, modern delivery. We thank our customers for their trust and their support.” By Jerry Sowden

Beth Harman, manager of the bank’s Cranberry office, pointed out that Northwest, a subsidiary of Northwest Bancshares Inc., continued its history of strong financial performance in 2009, a year when many financial institutions struggled.

Another honor

Early in the year, Forbes Magazine named Northwest Savings to its list as one of the 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in the country.

John Stiller, division vice president of commercial lending, said, “Forbes has an independent third party review all 12,000 publicly traded companies in the United States on a wide range of criteria, all linked to financial trust worthiness. Northwest was one of only 11 banks on the list. Also, our bank ranked first among savings banks on the list and we were number one in all geographic markets, which include Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio, New York, Maryland, and Florida.”

Bank expands

Northwest opened five new banking locations during the year, one in Youngsville, three near Rochester, N.Y., and one in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

In addition, the bank merged with Keystone State Savings Bank near Pittsburgh. Northwest now operates 171 banking locations in five states.

Scott Ridgeway, who manages Northwest’s Pleasantville office, pointed out the bank serves Venango County from one location each in Cranberry, Franklin and Pleasantville as well as three in Oil City. It has 25 more bank offices in contiguous counties. He noted Northwest and its predecessors have served Venango County for more than 100 years.

Franchise grows

Northwest sold $688 million of its common stock in a public offering in December to become 100 percent publicly owned. This additional capital will provide Northwest the opportunity to offer additional products and services and to continue to grow its franchise.

As part of its stock offering, Northwest established a charitable foundation to benefit the communities it serves and their residents.

“We’ve always supported our home towns,” said Ray Swacha, Venango County area manager of Northwest Savings Bank and manager of its Franklin office. “The foundation will allow us to do even more.”

‘Well capitalized’

Banks are continuously evaluated for safety and soundness based on the levels of capital that they maintain. Northwest Savings’ capital levels far exceed all state and federal regulatory requirements, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) considers Northwest to be “well capitalized.”

A second test of a bank’s stability is its profitability, especially during trying times. In this regard, Northwest remained profitable during 2009, a year of severe economic crisis in Venango County.

Ed Fennick, senior financial adviser, noted that, in a recent survey of the country’s 100 largest banks by Forbes, Northwest ranked 23rd best based on strength of capital, asset quality and profitability.

Appreciation shown

Titus summed up the award for all the workers at Northwest when he said, “Being noticed and complimented by Forbes is great, and making a profit, selling stock, being successful, well, that’s what business is all about…but to be named Business of the Year by the same folks you live and work beside..that’s an honor. We appreciate being named Business of the Year more than you can know. ”