A QUEST For Leadership: 2018-19 Leadership Central Penn Class Kicks Off

As September ushers in the official start of fall, that means leaves changing, the Bloomsburg Fair, and the start of Leadership Central Penn. This year’s LCP class kicked off at Bloomsburg University with QUEST team building.  The 19 members of the LCP Class of 2019 joined Chamber Foundation director, Jeff Emanuel, for a day of problem solving and block, tent, PVC pipe cube — no wait, team building.

The large group had to figure out how something that looked like a zoomed in photo of Thing 1’s hair related to the other 19 photos, ending with a postage stamp on a letter.  This was only one challenge using a small piece of a larger story. The next sent the group from a zoomed-in watch face, all the way out of a movie set with various backgrounds and images, within images, within images, and so on…  The group could not see one another’s photos, and these puzzles needed solved by describing what was in your photo.  No easy task, but the group used a variety of skills and persevered. 

Next the class was split into two groups of 10 and were challenged with building a rope house without crossing any pieces, creating a large PVC cube that could stand on its tip, a building-block challenge, blindfold tent building, and event flipping a tarp with everyone on it. Just when challenges couldn’t seem harder, there was always a twist. No one could have any part of their body leave the tarp, the blindfolded tent builders needed to all fit in a two-person tent, and the rope house had to stand.  Each challenge was met with determination and a will to succeed.  The groups successfully completed each task no matter how difficult, all of which had time limits.

The group started as strangers, but soon realized they needed to become colleagues to complete such strange tasks. This year’s class is going to be unique, and there are many more challenges ahead, and there is no doubt they will continue to rise to the occasion.

This year’s class is comprised of 19 professionals from three nonprofits and 10 companies – which include Chamber members Autoneum North America, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Bloomsburg University, Camp Victory, Edward Jones, First Columbia Bank, First Keystone Community Bank, Geisinger, Geisinger Health Plan, Kawneer, PPL Electric Utilities, Ronald McDonald House of Danville, and SEKISUI SPI.

Leadership Central Penn is sponsored by Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital, Kawneer, PPL Electric Utilities, SEKISUI SPI, USG and Williams.