Consultant Linda Beck, left, goes over the ground rules for a discussion on March 14, 2023 at GearHouse Brewing with 19 people from Chambersburg about how the borough could get better. At right is GearHouse co-owner Erin Miskell. Beck is also a representative of Braver Angels, a group dedicated to "uniting red and blue Americans in a working alliance to build new ways to talk to one another, participate in public life, and influence the direction of our nation." WITF, working with Miskell and Beck, helped convene the gathering as part of its commitment to community-engaged journalism.
As director of journalism, I work on things like newsroom strategy, culture, ethics, and training; I work with reporters (mainly climate reporter Rachel McDevitt) on stories; and I'm deeply involved with our community engagement efforts and collaborations with other news organizations.
My roots in journalism go back to growing up outside Washington, D.C., reading Woodward and Bernstein in my hometown paper, and being drawn to the ideals of freedom of the press and holding the powerful to account. I also idolized the Post’s sports columnists, and in fact was a sports reporter/editor before I moved to news.
I followed journalism’s call to the University of Missouri, then to jobs in Virginia and Maryland before landing in Pennsylvania, and I’ve lived near Gettysburg for more than two decades. Living in rural Pa. helps inform my work as a journalist and my belief that listening is one of the most important things we can do.
If I’m not doing journalism stuff, I may be traveling, bird-watching, or both.
Jeremy Long / WITF
Consultant Linda Beck, left, goes over the ground rules for a discussion on March 14, 2023 at GearHouse Brewing with 19 people from Chambersburg about how the borough could get better. At right is GearHouse co-owner Erin Miskell. Beck is also a representative of Braver Angels, a group dedicated to "uniting red and blue Americans in a working alliance to build new ways to talk to one another, participate in public life, and influence the direction of our nation." WITF, working with Miskell and Beck, helped convene the gathering as part of its commitment to community-engaged journalism.
The event in Chambersburg, and this story, are part of WITF’s partnership with America Amplified, using community engagement to inform and strengthen local, regional, and national journalism. America Amplified is a public media initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The interview was recorded using WITF’s mobile listening lab, created with funds from an America Amplified grant.
Nineteen people who live in Chambersburg came together recently to tackle big questions: What would their ideal community look like – and can the borough reach that ideal?
WITF helped convene the discussion March 14 at GearHouse Brewing as part of the station’s efforts to encourage civil dialogue across differences.
Like many communities across Pennsylvania and the U.S., political divisions play a role in Chambersburg. It’s the seat of government in Franklin County, which former President Donald Trump won with 71 percent of the vote in 2020, including a 4,794 to 4,084 edge in the borough. Chambersburg made statewide news in 2022 by becoming the first Pa. town to rescind a non-discrimination ordinance, which had been in place for just four months.
Jeremy Long / WITF
Consultant Linda Beck lays out ground rules to attendees at GearHouse Brewing on March 14, 2023, before the group discussed ways to make Chambersburg better.
However, WITF, GearHouse and Harrisburg-based consultant Linda Beck brought the group together in March not to rekindle past debates, but to look forward. The idea stemmed from a WITF News & Brews event at GearHouse in September and some of the issues discussed there.
GearHouse co-owner Erin Miskell took the lead on recruiting a demographically and politically diverse group of attendees, inviting about 40 people. Beck, of Beck and Associates Consulting, planned and conducted a “gap analysis” – inviting people to list characteristics of the best and worst communities they could imagine; say where they thought Chambersburg fell on that spectrum; and discuss what the borough could do to get closer to that best community.
During the two-hour event, people talked in-depth about shared experiences; pride in and frustrations with Chambersburg; and obstacles, opportunities and what lies ahead for a community they care about.
After the event, four attendees – Chadwick Hare, Alice Elia, Kim Amsley-Camp and Nancy Mazariegos of Chambersburg – agreed to talk in more depth about the night’s discussion and Chambersburg’s future.
Listen to the story:
Here is a transcript of the recorded conversation.
First up was Chadwick, who’s lived in Chambersburg for 17 years.
Jeremy Long / WITF
Chadwick Hare of Chambersburg gives his take on an event he attended March 14, 2023 at GearHouse Brewing, where borough residents talked about ways to make Chambersburg better.
Chadwick: I am a systems engineer and I work at the Hagerstown Airport. I am, probably an upper middle class, white, non-binary person, and I have raised two children, and been married for about 12 years.
Alice: I’m Alice Elia. I have lived here almost 17 years. For my day job. I work at the Franklin County Library System. I do fundraising and HR work there, and I’m in my eighth year on the Chambersburg Borough Council.
Kim: My name is Kim Amsley-Camp. I’m a certified nurse midwife here, and I practice at Keystone Women’s Care, a federally Qualified Health Center in Chambersburg. I am from here. I lived in Washington, D.C. for 22 years. I have been back here for 17 years.
Nancy: My name is Nancy Mazariegos. I currently work at Chambers Apothecary. I’ve been in Chambersburg for almost 30 years in September. My family’s originally from Guatemala, and we have, when we came to Chambersburg, my parents actually established the first Hispanic church.
We first asked, simply, describe the spirit of the conversation and how it felt to take part.
Chadwick: After a few minutes, it did feel like at least 75% of the people in the room were in agreement that there was progress to be made. That we’re not there. And it could be gotten to in a relatively short time frame.
Alice: I think we all probably learned something, whether it was about the people in the room or about our community.
Jeremy Long / WITF
From left, Alice Elia and Kim Amsley-Camp of Chambersburg are interviewed about an event they attended March 14, 2023 at GearHouse Brewing, where borough residents talked about ways to make Chambersburg better.
Kim: It’s nice to see people in the room that you’ve not seen before, and I felt for the first time the door is open to hear.
Nancy: And they actually listened. They didn’t just hear you talk, and I really appreciated that, to be heard.
Alice: I found this conversation uplifting. There are good people here on both sides of the aisle.
Kim: (It has felt like) politically, in this community, the line has been drawn in the sand. Elections have been won. We’re finished. We don’t need to hear anything. That room sounded different,
But we wanted to know if our group thought they had gained understanding of others, or did they feel their viewpoints were better understood.
Nancy: Oh, definitely. I think somebody described themselves as a Republican and inside of a bubble. I identified with her in a different way as well, because I sometimes feel like I’m in a bubble. The gentleman that was sitting next to me, he said, he saw me or somebody as an emissary, somebody that could, he could bring to the table and talk about these different issues.
Jeremy Long / WITF
Nancy Mazariegos of Chambersburg discusses an event she attended March 14, 2023 at GearHouse Brewing, where borough residents talked about ways to make Chambersburg better.
And I think immigration, we don’t talk about it a lot because we’re, we don’t understand it. And I think when I spoke about that topic, everybody came to a different understanding. I saw it on their faces.
Alice: I think this was a good reminder that we all have a bubble. I am guilty of that too. I have a bubble. Actually, the woman in there who said that, she and I go to a kickboxing class together, and it reminded me that things like that are really important.
Chadwick Hare, Alice Elia, Kim Amsley-Camp and Nancy Mazariegos of Chambersburg were talking about a group discussion where the ground rules included being civil and respectful.
We wondered if they had learned anything they could use in conversations with others they might disagree with.
Chadwick: It’s really eye-opening sometimes to see that there there’s still a lot of people that are willing to learn. There was definitely that, some of that going on tonight.
I don’t like confrontation at all. It’s definitely something that gives me all kinds of anxiety and I get really nervous And I definitely want to try to talk to people that maybe I would usually avoid just because of the confrontation. Maybe try to find that common ground.
Kim: There’s a segment of our population that doesn’t feel welcome. It doesn’t feel included, supported. And I think that was heard tonight, and I think that’s just huge that it was heard. Now we move forward.
Nancy: I’m a compliance officer, so I make sure everything’s in line. So what they said about processes and procedures, that just hits home. I belong to Chambersburg as a community, but sometimes I have to break myself away from that and become part of just the smaller community, the Hispanic community. And I believe that they need to learn these processes and procedures before we can do anything else.
Many in the group of 19 who showed up at GearHouse said they want to keep coming together and bring some people who weren’t there so their voices can be heard, too. They know it’ll take more than a meeting or two to help make Chambersburg better, but, by night’s end, there was hope.
Jeremy Long / WITF
From right to left, Nancy Mazariegos, Kim Amsley-Camp, Alice Elia and Chadwick Hare of Chambersburg talk with WITF Director of Journalism Scott Blanchard following an event at GearHouse Brewing on March 14, 2023.
Chadwick: One of the reasons that made me decide to get involved so much in just this last year is the repeal of the non-discriminatory ordinance that upset me to the core. It affected myself, it affected my daughter, it affected a lot of people that I care about.
But, I do feel like there is a lot of potential in Chambersburg. The younger generation is very inspiring. I’m very hopeful. I think it could, it can get there. I just think it’s gonna take a lot of motivation, a lot of tough conversations and people being more courageous and doing the right thing.
Alice: And we don’t all have to care in the same way. And we all had a surprisingly similar vision of what a good community is. And so if we’re all working towards that, then I feel like maybe we’ll be okay. And on the right track.
Kim: You know, I do birth for a living. I’m eternally optimistic. It can be done. This is the beginning. I just know it.
Nancy: I have made a commitment to this community, so I’m gonna be optimistic, even though some days you may need to pick me up or hold my hand, but I’m gonna continue to see that there is gonna be changes that are coming down the line and be part of it.
The event in Chambersburg, and this story, are part of WITF’s partnership with 
