Megan Boone Valkenburg hails from a place called Marsh Creek. It’s a tiny town nestled comfortably in the dense forests and rolling farmlands of Central PA. Adolescent Megan adored it. She rode bikes, played in the woods, worked at the family greenhouse. Teen Megan – not so much. For this cool, moody version of our hero, Marsh Creek was the kind of place that inspired only dreams of escaping. So, she did.

Out of high school, she was off to Shippensburg U for an 8-year stint that included undergrad and grad degrees in English and College Counseling. Then, with a brain full of book-learnin’ and roughly two cents-worth of experience, she signed up for AmeriCorps. And soon the bumpkin was off to the big city – Wilkes-Barre. She was stationed at Wilkes University running financial literacy programming for underserved Wyoming Valley youth. Her knack for community service along with a passion for inspiring young minds turned into a 2-decade jaunt as the University’s Civic Engagement Coordinator.

In her time at Wilkes, Megan instituted dozens of groundbreaking civic programs and worked closely with many other local, nonprofit organizations and community service providers. One of those orgs happened to be the United Way of Wyoming Valley whose massive community impact and stable of successful, “high-touch” programs piqued Megan’s inherent do-gooder sensibilities. In 2023, she joined the team and hit the ground running as the Community Engagement Manager. Now, you can find her in the trenches — sleeves pulled to her elbows, brow dappled with sweat — yet smiling all the way through efforts like Day of Caring, Thrive Drive and Young Leaders Society to name a few.

Today, Megan finds a comfortable balance between city and country with her family in Forty Fort. And when she’s not busy building up her community, she’s still out there discovering more and more of NEPA — even those little parts of it that remind her fondly of Marsh Creek (Yeah, she’s come full circle on all that). We popped by Megan’s Wilkes-Barre office back in November with a notebook full of silly, little questions and one very major, super important one – Why NEPA?

How long have you lived in NEPA?

I’ve been here since 2005, so about 20 years.

What do you love about your town?

We moved around quite a bit. We used to live at Harvey’s Lake, we used to live on Chase Road in Shavertown, and we finally landed in Forty Fort. I think the biggest blessing out of all the places we have ever lived is that we have had the most outstanding neighbors. In every single place we lived. But this time in Forty Fort, that community is just spectacular. On Halloween every year, our kids get to walk up and down the streets and it’s totally safe. Everyone is super friendly. We have neighborhood patrol. It’s just a beautiful experience to see so many kids in the community come out and play and get to go house to house and just be welcomed by all of the neighbors. We live pretty close to the Betty Mascelli Park, which is amazing. You get to see the kids out playing basketball at night. It really is a community where when the street lights come on, the kids go home, but before that they’re in the park playing. We have the community swimming pool. The churches are really active in the community. And there’s so many things that are close. I can walk down the street and get my hair cut or throw axes (laughs). There are so many great little restaurants that we can walk to. Everything is so close. Everything is right here. It’s just so convenient.

What’s your favorite NEPA restaurant?

Oh, that is a cruel question (laughs). Okay so, I think that an under-appreciated part of NEPA is the diversity of food choices and cuisines depending on your mood. So, you’re asking for one favorite, however it literally could be one favorite of a genre, right? I mean the best pizza– NY style — is from Chackos. Plain cheese with the sauce, it’s delicious. If I want a gyro, that’s Notis the Gyro King. That might actually be my favorite restaurant/food truck. Oh my gosh, it is amazing, fresh, never disappoints. I’m sure you hear this all the time, but there’s just so many wonderful places. Margarita Azul — just incredible! Fort Café – I order from there like at least every other week. Suraci’s… so good. The cheesesteak. Wow. Right? We are just swimming in amazing cuisine. We didn’t even get to Thai Thai or Istanbul Grille. That’s really what I love about working in the heart of the city. I have access to all these great places to go for lunch, or coffee. Abide, Pour, I mean there’s just so much.

Ok. I will just keep going if you don’t stop me (laughs). Notis the Gyro King – that’s it. That’ll be my number one.

What is your favorite thing to do in NEPA?

So, my daughter is five and she had decreed that, during the holiday season, we eat lunch downtown. It’s her choice — wherever she wants to go. Of course, it’s always going to be Rodano’s (laughs). Then, we go to Boscov’s, and she gets to go shopping for her siblings and her dad. And then we usually end up at the Kirby Center for a show or whatever program they have going on. So that’s her favorite thing. It’s literally just being downtown. She loves it. We’re always here for the Trunk or Treat event. We’ll come to the parades. She loves walking through the square when it’s all lit up. So that has become one of the favorite traditions – just park the car and walk and do fun things downtown. Then we have to get our nails done. It is written (laughs).

We’re also big fans of the city parks. We love going to Kirby Park for sledding in the snow. Oh, and we love Nova, the trampoline place. Yes, it’s amazing. It’s huge. There are so many things for families to do with their kids. We just love to do it all. I’m always looking for different opportunities, whether it’s the movie theater or the Kirby Center. Getting the kids involved in the art and culture around here is really important. And we also do martial arts class at 5th Dimension and we dance at Live Love Dance.

What’s next for you?

I think what’s next for me is to sort of continue working with young adults and young professionals to provide them with opportunities to really see what our community has to offer. And the one best ways to do that is to just get your hands in it. That’s one thing I learned pretty quickly in my time at Americorps — if you really want to see what is happening in your town, you have to put yourself out there. So, I think what’s next for me is providing these young leaders some opportunities to work with the public, to see what’s happening around them, and then to look at all the organizations that are coming together to support the mission of making NEPA a great place to live, work, and learn. I think the one way that United Way does that so well is to convene all these places together, all these organizations to support kids learning so they have an opportunity to thrive and become our next generation of young leaders.

Where do you see NEPA heading in the future?

So, I am an optimist by nature, and I really see that there are so many opportunities for folks to come to NEPA and put their own brand and their own stamp on this place. I do very much feel that we are an open community where folks have the ability to open a restaurant or open a coffee shop, and they’re very well received in our community. I’m hopeful that young people who are educated here at our amazing local schools decide to either come back to us or stay here. We have some really amazing opportunities in manufacturing and so many other big employers that there’s really like an endless number of ways to make a good living here. We have very active and strong communities to raise families. The cost of living is wonderful, but we’re still so close to major cities like New York or Philadelphia. To come here and stay here and put down roots – that’s what I’m hoping that the next generation of young people will do.

Why NEPA?

I’ve done a lot of things, and I’ve put a lot of miles on work boots. And every time I think about it, of course there are United Ways everywhere, and we’re all doing a very similar mission, but the reason I feel the United Way of Wyoming Valley is so special is because there’s so much care and love and devotion that seems to be tied to it. When we say that we really want children to thrive and excel in school and outside of school, we truly mean that. Your child is just as important as my child. We all want one another to succeed, because that is the strength of our community. We are only as strong as those that we are working with. So, for me, Why NEPA – it’s because there is such great opportunity, and there are incredible, inspiring young people here. We just recently had a Scoops Event, so it’s an ice cream party for kids at Dan Flood Elementary because they did so well with their reading over the summer. And just seeing such joy and excitement, I think it was as fun for them as it was for us. And when you get to see those beautiful things (pause)… that’s Why NEPA. That’s why United Way. It’s because we have a huge heart. We have a valley that cares, and it is true.