Downtown Hope in Action

Last spring, the owners of Flood City Cafe organized a Clinton Street clean up initiative. Dozens of volunteers joined together to make a difference. While it was only a few short hours of work, I got a lot out of the experience. Planting trees was exercise. Meeting fellow volunteers connected me to community members. After playing in the dirt, I ate lunch at Flood City with a kid I used to coach in junior high basketball. He was a kid no longer. We talked about fatherhood and raising kids in Johnstown.

I still have my volunteer T-shirt from that day, courtesy of the cafe. It reads, "The Bravest Thing is Always Hope."

Flash forward to this February. My wife and I are eating lunch once more at Flood City. A news reporter is filming, supposedly getting some shots for an upcoming story on the small business. I talk to one of my basketball coaches from my junior high days. One of the cafe's owners talks to my wife and I about all the good that is going on. Across the street, Escape Rooms Johnstown is the latest downtown draw and the latest initiative from the Flood City Cafe entrepreneurs. My wife proudly points out she and some friends just escaped. Without needing a history report, I proudly write that my wife is one of the most pregnant women ever to escape that Johnstown room.

Another Flood City sandwich in and I thought back to the Clinton Street clean up. Nothing I did on the street that day was brave in my book. Planting trees was no walk in the park, but volunteering was not something I believed was brave. Bravery, to me, starts with a small idea and has the potential to lead to something much greater. When thinking about bravery, I immediately think of life-changing risk.

Small business owners downtown are taking risks. Downtown Johnstown is alive.

Since beginning this blog in October 2016, I have tried my best to capture my positive experiences in Johnstown. After doing a history report of my own, I realized how much of that blogged experience has been downtown - crossing the finish line at Morley's Run, the Central Park Christmas Tree, holiday parades, the Tomahawks' support of veterans, a breakfast at The Atrium to honor veterans, music at the Holiday Inn, Flood City Cafe, and PRESS Bistro, dinner at Gallina's, a massage at The Vault, and an inspirational training in the Central Park complex.

I have yet to be locked in the Johnstown Escape Room. I am going to let my second daughter escape the womb before I give it a shot. Johnstown residents, give Downtown a shot.

If the bravest thing is to hope, the laziest thing is to label something "dead". Go out and live. There is good food to eat, good music to hear, and most importantly, good people to meet.

A volunteer T-shirt was a brave, small idea.