The Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center is lucky to have Judy Karaky as its General Manager. For more than 20 years, Karaky has guided others through the spirit of hospitality, and helped to make the Penn Stater a welcoming place for visitors. She was the inaugural recipient of The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau’s “Excellence in Service, Food & Beverage” award, presented at a special ceremony this past November.

I’ve been an avid Penn Stater all my life, so when I became a student, I had a bucket list as long as my arm. In the last four years, I’ve gotten to check a lot off of that list, but there was still so much to do.

Volunteers are needed for the inaugural IRONMAN 70.3 Pennsylvania Happy Valley this summer.

The IRONMAN HAPPY VALLEY triathlon is set for July 2, 2023, and IRONMAN asks for the support of the community to pitch in to help. More than 1,200 volunteers will be needed leading up to race day. Individuals and groups are encouraged to sign up to volunteer.

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.

It’s no surprise State College was named one of the 2022 Top 100 Best Places to Live by

Livability.com, and in top communities on Niche. Here are just a few of the positive attributes that local residents love about their hometown.

“How did I land in State College? Boy, that’s a wild story.”

Jeff Brown is the Morning Drive personality at 99.5 The Bus and broadcasting instructor and general manager of CommRadio at Penn State. He’s been in radio all his life, and radio is what introduced him — unintentionally — to his favorite place to live.

There are a small handful of places where I’ve traveled that have the ability to both energize and subdue the mind, heart and soul. Bellefonte, Pennsylvania is at the top of my list. I’ve spent a fair amount of time here, fishing different spots along Spring Creek from Benner to Milesburg, and a few eateries, and some cool bars in between. It’s the kind of place that has appeal for just about anyone. When you come here and see the Victorian architecture, small bars, unique eateries and eclectic shops, it actually makes the heart beat slower. I swear it does.

Many of us dream of wandering in the kind of charming, provincial communities we see on holiday cards at this time of year, but one needn’t travel overseas to London, Brussels, or Paris to make that vision a reality. While the “wilds” aspect of the PA Wilds gets much of the focus in our modern tourism industries, the storied towns that comprise the PA Wilds are just as worthy of a visit, offering guests the chance to unplug, reset and experience the holidays in places that welcome strangers and foster a genuine sense of community during the time of year that we crave it most.

Lyndsey Greenland, General Manager of Rolling Rails Lodge, is the recipient of the 2022 Happy Valley Hospitality Excellence in Lodging Leadership award.