Chamber Foundation

Since 1985 over 640 area residents have graduated from the LFC Community program. With expanded offerings in 2009 with the addition of our LFC Youth program, we are able to provide more opportunities for leadership skills development to a broader audience.

Designed and delivered by a dedicated base of community volunteer business leaders, our LFC programs provide a unique venue for personal and professional development. LFC steering committees (most members are LFC alumni) deliver these quality programs year after year.  Graduates continue to volunteer all over our county and participate in our active LFC Alumni group.

For more information and to apply for any of the Leadership Franklin County programs, click here. 

Follow Leadership Franklin County on Facebook or Leadership Franklin County on LinkedIn

 

LFC COMMUNITY

LFC Community is the flagship leadership program with this mission -- “Developing an inclusive continuum of civic leaders engaged in the advancement of the quality of life in Franklin County” Participants are taken through a nine month course where they learn about leadership and their community.

For more information and to apply for the Leadership Franklin County Community program, click here. 

LFC Community is sponsored by F&M Trust.

LFC YOUTH

LFC Youth began in 2009 with the mission "To create a community of young people who are actively engaged in responsible, ethical and effective leadership".

Key curriculum components of LFCY include: The Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, Encourage the Heart PLUS learning in public speaking, diversity & inclusion, and service learning in our community.

For more information and to apply for the Leadership Franklin County Youth program, click here.

LFC Youth is sponsored by Wilson College.

 

LFC ALUMNI

LFC Alumni are graduates of our LFC Community program who stay involved in the community long after their class has graduated. LFC Alumni can connect via their LFC Alumni Facebook Group or can learn about other alumni activities by contacting Alumni Committee Chair Michele Ford at mkford2130@gmail.com

LFC Alumni also work with the IceFestPa committee and host the Run Your Ice Off 5k.

Annually, an LFC Alumni of the Year award is given to acknowledge one alumna's accomplishments within the community.

 

Sunday February 2, 2020

Join our LFC Alumni Committee as they host the 2020 IceFestPa 'Run Your Ice Off" 5K on Sunday Feb. 2, 2020. The race is one of the final events of IceFest, the largest community event in Chambersburg. Beginning right through the middle of the festival down Main Street, the Run Your Ice Off 5k is a refreshing way to end the 4 day festival.

Proceeds from the 5k benefit IceFest, Leadership Franklin County Alumni Scholarship and Relay for Life. To register click here.

Saturday July 11th, 2020

Held annually in July at Chambersburg Area Senior High School during ChambersFest, Scoop is an all you can eat ice cream festival where the public samples flavors from local ice cream shops and votes on their favorites. The event also offers other fun activities like a kids area with face painting and games, music and other things to entertain our guests.

Scoop is presented by ACNB Bank.   Check out the Scoop website for more details.

All proceeds benefit educational programs throughout Franklin County funded by the Greater Chambersburg Chamber Foundation.  If your business is interested in supporting the 2020 Scoop event, please contact the Foundation for more information.

The Foundation's job board FranklinCountyWorks offers job listings from employers in Franklin County.  Chamber members, from all Franklin County Chambers, are eligible for discounted job postings.  Small business discounts (for employers with less than 25 employee) are also available. Complete job posting information can be found here.

 

Educator in the Workplace

The Greater Chambersburg Chamber Foundation was excited to partner with Chambersburg Area School District for the 2018-2019 school year to provide CASD educators the opportunity to internship/job shadow with area businesses and implementing information gained in classroom curriculum. 20+ educators participated in this important program. A Showcase event was held in April 2019 to highlight the year long program.

 

Technology Innovation Challenge Grants for Educators

Grants to teachers in Franklin County public schools are awarded annually to encourage the innovative use of technology in grades K-12. The Foundation offers the Technology Innovation Challenge Grants to educators in all six school districts thanks to contributions from area businesses.

Contributing businesses are eligible for Educational Improvement Tax Credits (EITC) through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). As an approved Educational Improvement Organization (EIO), the Greater Chambersburg Chamber Foundation partners with area businesses to provide these grant dollars.

We thank BB&T Bank, Orrstown Bank, and Waste Management for their 2019 EITC contribution.

Grant applications are available here and are due by March 31, 2019. Applicants will be evaluated based on three key criteria: innovation, value added to curriculum and advanced academics.

The Community Education Coalition (CEC) was created in 2015 as a workforce development initiative for Franklin County. The coalition defined a vision "To develop a strong community where all individuals have the opportunity to grow and prosper.

The Community Education Guiding Coalition (CEC) focused on three priority areas and formed three specific groups of focus: Employability, Early Childhood Education, and Well-Being. The Foundation sponsors the CEC Employability group, United Way leads early childhood education efforts and Healthy Franklin County addresses well-being in our community.

CEC - Employability
This Foundation sponsored group is led by Angela Austin of WellSpan and Dr. Michael Doncheski of Penn State Mont Alto. The employability group addresses workforce development concerns from grade 3 through retirement. The group partners with the Franklin County Career and Technology Center to hold a career exploration expo prior to the middle school open house at the school each March, and hosts an annual high school business challenge, and further promotes workforce development thru grants like Educators in the Workplace.

The Franklin County High School Business Challenge

The Purpose
The Franklin County High School Business Challenge encourages area high school students to create their own fictional, yet profitable and sustainable business plans. This task allows students to use both creative thinking and critical analysis skills in establishing plans for a sustainable enterprise that are socially and environmentally responsible and financially effective.

Plans are evaluated by area business leaders, and finalists are invited to pitch their plans at the Franklin County High School Business Challenge event in April 2020 at the Franklin County Career and Technology Center. Scholarship dollars are awarded to the top three highest scoring teams. The Franklin County High School Business Challenge allows students and business people to be actively engaged in each other’s worlds.

The Scenario
In today’s world there is a new market for businesses that are socially responsible, environmentally conscious and economically viable. The Franklin County High School Business Challenge invites teams of student entrepreneurs to develop and pitch business plans for sustainable enterprise they believe would meet the criteria, best serve the region and its residents, and financially succeed in Franklin County, Pa.

Each business proposal must address and embrace the principles of triple bottom-line sustainability: people, planet and profit. All proposed plans will be evaluated to determine which company could generate the largest and quickest return on investment, create the newest jobs in the region, and operate in a socially impactful and environmentally conscious way.

Judging
Written business plans will be evaluated by members of the members of the Chambersburg Chamber Foundation’s Community Education Coalition. Judging criteria will be based on:

Ingenuity shown in the selection of a business and target market
Thoroughness and completeness of the plan
Integration of triple bottom-line sustainability
Accuracy of the research provided.
Final judging and selection of the Challenge winner will be via oral presentations (pitching of proposals like on the TV show Shark Tank), judged by a panel of local business leaders. Judges will consider teams’ business plans, their overall proposal pitches and the way students respond to judges’ extemporaneous questions during presentations.

Scholarship prizes will be awarded to the top three highest-scoring team. First place wins $750, second place wins $500 and third place wins $250

Information for the 2020 contest is available here.

Intent to participate forms are due Jan. 31, 2020. Finalist teams will compete against each other in "Shark Tank" style with a panel of judges in April 2020.

Franklin County High School Business Challenge Winners:

2018: Greencastle-Antrim High School: AssemBuild - Collin Griffin, Matthew Lynerd, Clare Hudak

2017: Greencastle-Antrim High School: Grean Bag - Collin Griffin, Matthew Lynerd, Nick Starkey, Austin Straley, Dylan Starkey

 

Franklin County High School Business Challenge is presented by the CADC and these sponsors: