B.J. Hobler. |
St. Marys resident BJ Hobler has just completed the VALU Program sponsored by the Auglaize County Chambers of Commerce. Hobler is Wright State University Lake Campus’ Student Services Officer/Registrar and Admissions.
VALU stands for Visioning Auglaize County through Leadership and Unity. The program, which is in its second year, was begun to help community leaders become more familiar with what Auglaize County has to offer. The program, for which participants must apply to and be accepted, began in September and continued until completion in May.
Each month participants looked at a different aspect of the county, including local government, education, communications, health and human services, justice and safety, local history and tourism, agriculture, and industry and economic development.
Fifteen people, who were either Auglaize residents or persons employed in Auglaize County, participated in the program. “There were CPAs, bankers, a United Way director, a newspaper editor, a nursing home administrator, a doctor's wife, a jeweler, a representative from Time Warner, an attorney, a physical therapist, an outreach person for Auglaize County Council on Aging, and me. We toured a wastewater plant, a water treatment plant, and heard local government officials speak. We toured county schools and were addressed by school administrators. We visited various news media for the communications aspect of the program - we went to WLIO TV and to Wapakoneta Daily News and Lima News.” The group also went to several area factories, including Crown Equipment.
Other tours included a trip to the Wapakoneta Y, to JTDM Hospital, and a number of nursing homes, and Bayliff & Sons Funeral Home and crematorium. The month justice and safety was the topic the new county jail and the courthouse were visited, and local history and tourism saw the group touring several different museums. Hobler says, “The museum visits were a part I especially enjoyed.”
Another interesting tour for Hobler was in the agriculture segment of the program when the group toured the MTM farm in New Hampshire and got to go into their “huge round barn - it was soooooo cool.”
Graduation took place at Minster Machine’s farm located outside of St. Marys at the end of the class’s last tour. Graduates were given certificates of completion and each received a special wooden box lettered “VALU - Visioning Auglaize, Leadership and Unity, Class of 2003.”
“It was a great experience, and I learned a lot about the county that I didn't know. I think everyone had their eyes opened up in one area or another. You can live in a community for years and still learn something new about it,” Hobler summarized.
