“We never intended to stay here,” Troy Weston and Melissa Hombosky said about their move to Happy Valley in 2002. “We just forgot to leave.” There seems to be a little more to the story than forgetting to leave.

The pandemic was the spark that New York City content creator Corey Beasley needed to start his own video production business — in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania.

The unofficial rule of thumb is that each region gets to boast one resident puppet master, and you’ve probably seen the name: Adam Swartz Puppets.

Who is Corey Elbin?

Audibly speaking, he is DJ Elbow Knee Knee, audio mixologist and one of Happy Valley’s fastest-rising community figures. He is a curator of all-vinyl musicscapes for book release events, all-age dance parties, yoga salutations and baby raves. He also collaborates with Open Music, a project ensemble of musical humanists who celebrate today’s avant-garde artists.

After Sarah Anne Wharton graduated from Juniata College, she launched to Maine, New Mexico and Brooklyn, New York, never expecting to land back in Central Pennsylvania. Today, she proudly calls herself a Happy Valley local. She’s a champion for the area’s unique mix of outdoor adventure, vibrant research and — as communications specialist for the Palmer Museum of Art — art for everyone.

If you visit Philipsburg and make your way to the new Moshannon Valley Heritage Center (we highly recommend that you do!), you’ll inevitably run into Tom Laird. He is, after all, a lifelong Philipsburg resident, original member of The Cold Stream Beach Bums, and can regale you with stories of old dams, forgotten ruins, hollows and hills of the area. “It sings to me,” he says.

Gary Abdullah Jr. was born in the shadow of Beaver Stadium, went to State High, and married his childhood crush who lived down the street … but he never intended to stay in Happy Valley. Today, he will tell you that he has made Happy Valley his place — and it’s his life’s work to make it a place for everyone. Because in his words, “Happy Valley isn’t happy for everyone.” And he wants to change that.

When Tanya Campbell was a little girl, her grandmother walked her dogs on Charcoal Flats, a trail in Shingletown. Tanya, her mother, and her daughter also enjoyed hiking along this same trail. The trail, just past Pine Grove Mills near the small town of Shingletown, is known for its series of four charcoal flats — large, circular flat areas where logs would be piled and allowed to smolder to create and one that was used to make iron ore. Or, in the words of little girl Tanya, it’s a place that is “rocky and awesome.”

R. Thomas Berner is co-author of “We Had Ink in Our Blood,” a retrospective on newspapers in Central Pennsylvania, but to be fair, he carries a good bit of Pennsylvania dirt in those veins too. He can trace his Pennsylvania roots back to 1733, and his Happy Valley ties to college days in 1968. After a stint in New Mexico, he says he and his wife moved back, gladly. Here’s why.