Three conversations with Erica Quinn, Don O’Connell and Chuck Gambone reminded us that strong communities are built by people who keep showing up.
July 29, 2026
One of the best parts of hosting Connect HappyValley AM with Chris Buchignani is that we get something increasingly rare.
We get an hour.
That gives us time to listen without rushing and to hear stories that could never fit into a social media post or a two-minute television segment. We begin to understand not only what someone does, but why they keep doing it.
Over three recent mornings, we spent that hour with Erica Quinn, Don O’Connell and Chuck Gambone.
Their backgrounds and paths into Happy Valley are very different, yet Chris and I realized that we had heard the same story told three ways. Each of them has found a place in this community by helping other people find theirs.
They are not seeking attention for themselves or waiting for someone else to act. They are among the guides and stewards quietly doing the work that makes Happy Valley stronger.
Erica Quinn: Creating Places for Possibility
Erica Quinn never expected to make State College her home.
She attended Juniata College, moved abroad, returned to Pennsylvania, moved to New York and eventually came back to Central Pennsylvania again. Her six-month project at the Juniata College Museum of Art began in 2013, and in 2019 she moved to State College.
What persuaded her to stay was not simply a job or a place. It was the people she met.
“If these people live here, then I can stay here,” she remembered thinking.
Quinn joined 3 Dots Downtown as it emerged from a 15-month pandemic closure. Rather than deciding what programs the community needed, she began meeting people, listening to their ideas and asking what stood between them and the work they wanted to do.
That approach helped 3 Dots become a place where people and ideas could find one another. Happy Valley Improv used it to test programming before opening its own downtown space. The Print Factory in Bellefonte developed ideas there while 3 Dots served as its fiscal sponsor. Quinn’s collaboration with Corey Elbin also became part of the network from which Manny’s Live Performance Space grew.
Today, as the founder of River Quartz Collective, Quinn continues bringing artists, organizations and communities together.
Her work is especially visible at East End Social, the seasonal gathering place on Hiester Street created through a partnership involving the Downtown State College Improvement District, Comet Properties and River Quartz Collective. Quinn serves as its project manager and steward.
Close a street, add planters, tables and chairs, and people begin filling the space. Give them an invitation, and they begin bringing their own ideas.
“I send the emails. People do the rest,” Quinn joked.
Of course, there is much more to it than that. Spend an hour with Erica and you begin to see why she believes artists should be involved in community planning from the beginning, not invited at the end to decorate what others have already decided.
Most of all, you see someone who measures success by the people who become part of what happens next.
Watch Erica Quinn’s full Connect HappyValley AM interview to hear how 3 Dots, Manny’s, East End Social and the Looking at US mural project became part of a growing community of possibilities.
Don O’Connell: Turning Belonging Into Service
Don O’Connell came to Penn State from the Scranton area in the early 1990s, met the woman who would become his wife and eventually returned to Centre County in 2003.
He now lives near Warriors Mark, surrounded by fields and animals, but close enough to enjoy the restaurants, performances and major college athletics found around State College.
For Don, appreciating this community also means accepting some responsibility for it.
He is a past president and membership chair of the State College Downtown Rotary Club. He volunteers with Centre Volunteers in Medicine and leads its Centre County Cornhole Classic fundraiser. He serves as the chartered organization representative for Scouting America Troop 31 and participates in the State College Area High School Construction Trades occupational advisory committee and the Builders Association of Central Pennsylvania.
He learned to serve while growing up in Moscow, outside Scranton. Don was the first person in his family to attend college. His extended family worked in construction, farming and custodial jobs. They did not have much money, but they cared about their community and gave what they could.
“That is what I saw growing up,” he said. “That is what I learned.”
The most personal example of that spirit grew from the loss of his 16-year-old son, David, who died by suicide in 2021.
When Don approached Seven Mountains Scout Camp about creating something in David’s memory, he learned that the camp needed a new health building. Through relationships developed in Scouting, Rotary and the local building industry, he helped bring people, donated materials, labor and funding together to create the David O’Connell Health Education Building.
It is a powerful story of a father carrying grief into an act of service that will care for young people for years to come. It is also a story best heard in Don’s own voice.
He shared a Rotarian idea that captures why he continues showing up: Plant a tree you may never sit beneath and dig a well from which you may never drink.
Don does not describe service as a sacrifice. He talks about the friendships, pride and sense of purpose it has returned to him. His invitation to others is simple: Give one hour and see what happens.
Watch Don O’Connell’s full Connect HappyValley AM interview to hear the story of the health building, his work with Rotary, Scouting and Centre Volunteers in Medicine, and why he believes service can become a pathway to friendship and belonging.
Chuck Gambone: Keeping the Conversation Going
Six mornings a week at 6:30, Chuck Gambone joins a small group of friends for conversation. They have kept that practice going for 22 years.
Some now participate by Zoom, including a retired professor who moved to Pittsburgh. On Fridays, the group gathers in person at Good Day Café and often invites a guest who can bring a new story or perspective to the table.
That commitment tells you a great deal about Chuck.
He believes relationships are built through consistency, and he believes communities become stronger when people know one another well enough to disagree, listen and keep talking.
Chuck came to Penn State as an undergraduate, served in the United States Navy and then found his way back to Happy Valley for graduate school. He entered real estate almost by accident and has now spent more than 40 years helping people find homes here.
The values Chuck brings to community leadership are also at the heart of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate GSA Realty, where he serves as principal broker. For Chuck and his team, real estate is not simply about completing a transaction. It is about listening, understanding what matters to each person and helping them find the place where the next chapter of their life can unfold.
During our conversation, we talked about housing, leadership, community growth and the future of the former SCI Rockview property. Chuck did not pretend to possess a single answer to every challenge.
He kept returning to the importance of dialogue.
Some people want land preserved. Others see the need for housing and jobs. Chuck believes those perspectives must be brought into the same conversation if Happy Valley is going to grow without losing what makes it special.
“If you want to have some say in how this growth goes, you have to be involved,” he said.
Chuck also spoke about the passing of leadership from one generation to the next. Happy Valley needs younger people to step forward, but it also needs experienced leaders to share what they have learned and create room for others.
That bridge cannot be built through a speech or a strategic plan. It is built through relationships, one conversation at a time.
Watch Chuck Gambone’s full Connect HappyValley AM interview to hear his perspective on real estate, smart growth, community leadership and what 22 years of morning conversations have taught him about listening.
What Chris and I Learned
Every interview teaches us something, but these three conversations fit together in a special way.
Erica Quinn creates places where people and ideas can meet. Don O’Connell shows what can happen when someone joins, serves and keeps giving. Chuck Gambone reminds us that the wisdom of one generation must be shared with the people who will guide the next.
None of them is waiting for a grand plan.
Erica makes the introduction. Don volunteers for the project. Chuck keeps the conversation going.
Individually, those actions may appear small. Together, they form the civic architecture beneath Happy Valley.
At Connect HappyValley, we often say, “You Belong Here.”
After spending an hour with Erica, Don and Chuck, I am reminded that belonging is not something we simply discover. It is something neighbors create for one another by listening, inviting, serving and showing up again tomorrow.
Chris and I are grateful that our microphones give us a front-row seat to these stories. We hope you will spend an hour with each of these three guests.
I think you will come away seeing Happy Valley, and your own place within it, a little differently.
Continue the conversation. Watch the full Connect HappyValley AM interviews with Erica Quinn, Don O’Connell and Chuck Gambone on our YouTube channel. Then tell us: Who else in Happy Valley is quietly making this community stronger?
https://www.youtube.com/@ConnectHappyValley
