Category: Projects
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Finding Family
By: Selina Pedi-Smith, Pellere Foundation The Open House on June 20th went swimmingly, if I may say so myself! The weather was amazing, and folks from all around the community, from next-door neighbors to neighbors from two towns over, came to see what we’ve been up to. Some came to ask questions. Some came to… Read more
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Footprints on the Ceiling
By: Selina Pedi-Smith, Pellere Foundation The funny thing about cleaning a house is that the more you clean, the dirtier everything seems. You finally get around to dusting the ceiling fans, and then you notice how grubby the windows look. You clean the windows and suddenly the baseboards seem questionable. That sort of thing. Maybe… Read more
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Further Along
By: Selina Pedi-Smith, Pellere Foundation Do you know how absolutely, soul-quenchingly satisfying it is to see a system you designed and built work as intended? I mean, really. It’s ridiculously fulfilling, even when it’s something small and simple. Remember our driveway drainage issues? Well, our new drainage network got its first real test today. Torrential… Read more
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Says Who??
By: Selina Pedi-Smith, Pellere Foundation Each week, when I sit down to figure out what I’m going to write about, I usually go back and read the last column or two and see where my thoughts want to go next. I got to the last sentence of last week’s article, though, and stopped. “Where a… Read more
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It’s What Comes Next
By: Selina Pedi-Smith, Pellere Foundation The demolition work inside Seneca Plaza’s smaller building is almost complete – and the transformation is already spectacular! The previously claustrophobic hodge-podge of internal dividing walls is gone, and what’s left is one bright, open, and airy blank slate. For the first time in a long time, you can actually… Read more
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Progress isn’t always fast—but it’s still progress.
Selina Pedi-Smith, Pellere Foundation Welcome to June! And… this isn’t the article I hoped I’d be writing right now. I hoped we’d have more definitive updates, more visible progress, more reasons to celebrate. But, after two decades of doing this work, I can’t say I’m surprised. Slow, sometimes excruciatingly painful progress is the norm, not… Read more
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No, Don’t Do That! (The Joys of DIY Videography)
Selina Pedi-Smith, Pellere Foundation “No, don’t do that. I don’t wanna do that. Stop that!”—actual quote from Rachel this week as we tried to film a simple video. Cut to: an accidental clip of the W 2nd St house project slowly spinning from sideways to upside down while both of us tried not to scream…… Read more
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Pellere – We’re Investing in Communities
By Selina Pedi-Smith, Founder, Pellere Foundation Throughout March we’ve talked about investment – not just in the financial sense, but in what we choose to care about, build, and sustain for the future. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that the best investments take time. They start as ideas, sometimes ambitious, sometimes simple.… Read more
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The Work of Change: Progress, Possibility, and What Comes Next
Selina Pedi-Smith with Isaias Gomez, Pellere Foundation When you’re deep in the cleanup of a long-neglected house, you learn to see progress in small victories—another wall stripped to the studs, another load of debris hauled away, a little light breaking through where there used to be none. For Isaias Gomez, who’s been hard at work… Read more
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Turning Blight into Bright: How Restoring Homes Revitalizes Communities Turning Blight into Bright
You probably see them every day. They’re in every town, sometimes on almost every street. The houses with peeling paint, sagging roofs, and yards where the weeds have taken over. They’re hard to miss, and if we’re being honest, they can feel like a thorn in the side of an otherwise beautiful street, but here’s… Read more
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Breathing New Life into 403 W 2nd St: Pellere Foundation’s First Blight Remediation Project
By Selina Pedi-Smith The Pellere Foundation is thrilled to announce the beginning of our first blight remediation project at 403 W 2nd St, a once-stunning Victorian home in the heart of Oil City. This property, generously donated by Sadie McLaughlin and her brother Ian McLaughlin, represents both a challenge and an opportunity—a chance to breathe… Read more
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Future of the Lower Clarion River
Over the last few weeks, we’ve touched a little on the importance of environmental advocacy even with new green energy. Now let’s look at a real-life, local example of past environmental contamination and a new organization that seeks to care for and restore the watershed of the Lower Clarion River. Rob Bodenhorn, President, Watershed Association… Read more