Dreaming big keeps things moving

Recently, I was honored for my work in Somerset County over the years.

During my thank you speech, I revisited some of the things we did and several of the “almost things” that did not quite make it along that journey. Here’s that speech: Let me start by telling you how I got here. I was born near the Coke Ovens in Fayette County in a house without plumbing. Thirty-three years later, I came to work in Somerset. Yep, that’s it.

Now, just for fun, let’s explore some of my craziest ideas. Not all of them made it, but dreaming big was half the fun.

At the Laurel Arts Dressler Center, we built an enchanted forest from materials we dug out of the Coleman Camper factory dumpsters. We brought the materials back to the center in a donated truck that burst into flames every time we started it.

Have fire extinguisher, will travel.

The enchanted tactile forest was built so that it grew smaller and smaller until visitors had to crawl through the bottom of a door into a cloud room.

We had Somerset County elementary school students and the governor of Pennsylvania crawl through that padded door. Yep, that happened.

Then we had a Mark Twain actor perform at the Somerset County schools, and that went so well that we brought in hundreds of other performers for assemblies. Behind Penn State, we were the second largest arts presenter in Pennsylvania.

Somerset Welding and Steel donated a mobile art center to us. We took the Smithsonian kite exhibit to every elementary school, where we had a manned experimental kite airplane fly and land at every school playground. Each student received donated materials to build kites. That dream jump-started the local kite economy.

Now, at this point, some people might list their greatest achievements – like those 2,000 kids I taught, or the nearly 700,000 cancer tissues stored for genetic research at the former Windber Research Institute, or the soon-to-open medical school at Indiana University of Pennsylvania – but let’s keep this fun.

Here are some of our greatest “almosts.”

First up, we worked with local coal companies on a plan to reclaim the old bony dump in Grey into an outdoor amphitheater like Inner Harbor Baltimore (without the water) to be the summer home of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Gershwin in Gray, almost happened.

Then there was my brilliant idea of running elevated, enclosed gondola cars to connect the old Georgian Place Shopping Center to uptown Somerset. Who wouldn’t want to commute via the aerial tram over the turnpike to uptown Somerset?

And let’s not forget my inflatable dam idea for Point Stadium in Johnstown. Former state Sen. John Wozniak thought it was a good idea. It would have turned the river shores into entertainment hubs like Venice meets the Laurel Highlands.

Unfortunately, no one was convinced we could deflate that dam fast enough when it rained.

One of my favorite ideas was running hydrofoils on the Youghiogheny River from Pittsburgh to Connellsville that connected another idea for enclosed ski lifts leading 17 miles through state game lands and parks to Fallingwater.

As head of Laurel Highlands Tourism, my favorite idea involved buying mesh fly coats for all the cows visible from the turnpike that read: “Welcome to Somerset County, where the people are udderly fabulous.”

That led to my amazing idea at the former Windber Medical Center for the billboard, “Get your Hips on Route 56.”

When prisoners built the walking trails at Windber Medical Center, it was a rainy day, and they wore Department of Correction rain slickers. An older lady observing their work said, “It’s so nice your doctors are building that trail.”

The point is that dreaming big helps keep things moving forward. So, here’s to more dreams, more laughs, maybe an extra ski lift or two, and a few more cow coats.

Nick Jacobs, of Windber, is a health care consultant and author of the book “Taking the Hell Out of Healthcare.”

tribdem@tribdem.com