Uncovering The Hidden Treasure In Your Community

When you live in a community for a long period of time, you create a routine. You shop in the same stores. You eat in the same restaurants and you visit the same attractions. Every community has something that makes it special, but mostly visitors see those sites. If you continue with your routine, you forget that those special places exist, or sometimes you grow up not knowing they are even there. Because of this, every community has a hidden treasure, something that exists a short distance away from your home that you may not know about.

I spent four years in the Lehigh Valley as a college student and I rarely left the Easton community and traveled to other areas of the Lehigh Valley.  The Lehigh Valley is filled with great attractions such as Dorney Park, the Crayola Factory, Martin Guitar, Olympus, Coca-Cola Park and Lehigh Valley Zoo. I visited Dorney Park and the Crayola Factory as a kid because I was coming to the Lehigh Valley as a visitor, as a tourist.  But when I lived in the Lehigh Valley, I only traveled to those locations once. I only visited Martin Guitar and Olympus because I was invited there for a specific event, but I would otherwise not have gone.  I flew over Coca-Cola Park in a helicopter ride, but it took me until the day of my college graduation to do so. And I did not visit Lehigh Valley Zoo until April 2011, four years and eight months after I first moved to the Lehigh Valley. 

My motto is whenever you travel somewhere, enter as a tourist and leave as a local. But this motto is true if you reside in a community as well.  Invite a relative or a friend to your community, and ask them to research what attractions they want to visit while there. How many of those attractions have you been to?

From 1999 to 2006, I traveled to 30 countries including South Africa and Australia. It took me by surprise that I could find an African Penguin and an Australian Red Kangaroo in the Lehigh Valley, just 35 minutes from where I went to college. At Lehigh Valley Zoo, I could even watch a penguin feeding, something I never would have imagined.

When I speak to my friends in Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown, several visited the area zoo as school children but had not been back since. Some asked me where it was located, and a select few said they never knew a zoo existed so close. I cannot believe that I studied at Lafayette College from August 2006 until May 2010 and was not aware of the local zoo. In addition to seeing the animals, the mission of the zoo is wildlife conservation, a message many teenagers, young professionals and adults care about. 

The hidden treasures of a community are not hard to find. Ask your parents where you visited as children. Research where you went on school field trips. And go to the local tourism center and ask where they recommend visitors travel. You will be amazed at all that exist in your backyard! Whether walking distance or a short drive away, your community may be filled with amazing attractions that you never knew were there. I will always encourage you to leave a community as a local, but also enter as a tourist. Explore the area like you are entering it for the first time. You will be surprised what you discover.

Alan