If you've never driven the section of Route 99 between State College and Altoona, PA in the early morning hours, you've missed some of the most beautiful scenery in Pennsylvania. Nestled into a ridgeline that creases down the center of the state, 99 winds south towards the turnpike while presenting commanding views of the hills and valleys that roll out to the west as far as the morning mist allows you to see.
About 15 miles to the north of Altoona lies the town of Tyrone, PA, an important community in the history of Pennsylvania's coal economy and home to the always popular Gardner's Candies. Steve and I dropped in to Joe's Place on Old 220 to visit with the Tyrone Kiwanis Club during one of their regular breakfast meetings. Steve talked about our ongoing efforts to build connections with service-oriented groups, like Kiwanis clubs, across the central PA area.
Steve explained part of the rationale of The Bisbee Project's Scholarships for Service program that I think is important to reiterate here. High school graduation season is approaching, and we make every effort to attend every ceremony where our scholarships are awarded. We think it is extremely important to recognize the young people who have decided to pursue careers in service in front of their peers, and make note of how crucial getting good people into positions of responsibility is for our society.The recent NFL draft drives home a few points about what our society values, in our view. Now, we love pro football as much as anybody, but it is striking when you sit back and think about how much attention is paid to the development of our athletes -- and how haphazard is our society's approach to developing its public servants. For days we are glued to our TV sets watching the draft, and now many of us know exactly where last year's college football stars are playing in the next NFL season. But how many of us can name a single brigade or division commander serving in Iraq or Afghanistan? We can easily list off the names of the top three wide receivers or defensive ends snapped up with multi-million dollar contracts, but do we know who's running for our local school board in this spring's primary? Just something worth thinking about...
We want to thank Bill Ellenberger and the rest of the Kiwanis members for welcoming us to Tyrone. Community service may not be as glamourous as the NFL, but it certainly is essential. Thanks to everybody out there who understands where our real priorities are. 
