Neighbors United | Lancaster, PA - Neighbors United

Board and Committees

Lancaster's Northeast Neighbors United is all about supporting your initiatives, connecting you to neighbors and services, and advocating for your concerns and hopes. We are decentralized, so rather than top down initiatives, we think that community organizing does better with neighbors sharing ideas with each other as the first step in creating change for the Northeast.

We created linked groups attached to this community that you can join. These are incubators for ideas, think tanks where you can collaborate with like minded neighbors. Our board members and the committees they lead are for those ready to take deeper dives & make ideas into reality. As ideas take shape we as an organization can support them and we can be successful in accomplishing our goals!

2020-2021 Board Officers: Tim Freund - President, Steven Garner - Treasurer, Andrew Whalen - Secretary

KAtie Chaffinch
2020 - present

Katie recently joined the Northeast neighborhood, making a home on North Plum Street. Originally from southern Delaware, Katie lived in Virginia and Kansas and eventually made her way to Lancaster in 2013.
She is continually inspired by Lancaster's hospitality, natural beauty, and intersection of cultures. Katie is especially excited to become a Northeast neighbor because of her work as a school social worker at Ross Elementary School.
On any given day, you'll find Katie gardening, hiking, experimenting with a new kombucha blend, or attempting a Pinterest-inspired home decor project.

Tim Freund
2018 - Present

Tim Freund lives next to Triangle Park with Kate and their adopted dogs. They moved to Lancaster 6 years ago and have embraced the city as their home. They found the dense design of Lancaster makes for strong connections compared to the car centered sprawl of Midwestern cities. If you've spent time in or around Lancaster Cemetery you've likely seen Tim volunteering. We're lucky to have a 22 acre historic green space in our neighborhood, and together we can make it a gem of the city.
Tim studied computer science, math, and sociology. He's a jack of all trades software engineer and currently working as the Site Reliability Manager for WebstaurantnStore in Lititz. He probably can't fix your printer, but he can write code and teach you to do the same. His opinions on neighborhood development are heavily influenced by the work of Jane Jacobs, and he's willing to walk almost anywhere in the city if it means he can avoid parallel parking.

Steven Garner
2020 - Present

Steven, who has been splitting his time between Lancaster and NYC for the last 15 years, is now a full time Northeast city resident. He and his wife Kim live on East New Street, with their 4 cats, including the formerly feral Oranje, and three younger cats that they adopted from ORCA in January.
Steven retired in January from an over 40 year career in the entertainment industry, working as a union stagehand and lighting programmer in theatre, television, film, and live events. He has been active in the Lancaster community and Neighbors United, including the annual Neighbors Night Out; and serves on the board of Creative Works. A lifelong sports enthusiast, Steven enjoys walking over to McCaskey to catch a basketball game or a track meet and working out at the YMCA. He is an frequent entrant in Lancaster road races. He can be found on his front porch or in the backyard practicing his guitar for jams at Tellus360.
Steven has felt warmly welcomed in the Lancaster community, and looks forward to giving back to it.

Karen Gifford
2020 - Present

Karen is a Lancaster native and owns and lives in the house her parents bought on North Shippen Street before she was born. She attended Lancaster City Schools and Harrisburg Area Community College and is a licensed Drug and Alcohol Counselor who has worked for numerous organizations in Lancaster as well as owned her own counseling business. Karen works in the substance abuse and recovery sector and is employed at Blueprints for Addiction Recovery.
She has a son and three grandchildren in Delaware who she tries to see as often as possible. Karen and Rodney Upsher, her partner, have been active in the local community through not only Northeast Neighbors United but also with Otterbein UM church, Adopt a Block, and organizing yearly block parties for National Night Out.
Karen is committed to keeping Lancaster, and especially her neighborhood, a friendly family oriented place to live, work and play.

Alexander King
2019 - Present

Alex moved to Lancaster from Scotland with his family in 2016. He lives on Shippen St. north of the cemetery and has two boys in city schools. His household includes Percy, a grey tabby, who can be seen wandering neighbors’ shady back yards, enjoying the outdoors.
Alex is a real estate agent with LancLiving Realty and occasionally teaches anthropology at F&M College. He enjoys listening to the McCaskey marching & concert band perform, Scouting, hanging out with neighbors and sitting on his porch reading a book.

Kendra Saunders
2020 - Present

Kendra Saunders moved to Lancaster City in 2002 and lived for several years in the Northwest part of the city. She relocated to the 100 block of East Clay in October, and she is eager to get involved in this quadrant of the city.
In the past she has served on City Council and as a board member of Community Action Partnership. She currently serves on the Community Advisory Panel of LGH and is a psychologist and professor at Millersville University.
During down time, Kendra enjoys walking and biking around the city, yoga, camping, and exploring craft breweries. She is excited to get to her new neighbors and neighborhood better.

Andrew Whalen
2019 - Present

Andrew Whalen grew up in New Jersey, traveled the world and finally laid down roots in Lancaster City. As a "shoo-fly migrant", he vacationed in Lancaster County and decided to stay. After 15 years of City-living, he has found so much more!
Andrew, his wife Joy and two daughters, live on North Shippen Street. You will find them in their yard working in their garden, enjoying the shade of their English Walnut tree, or biking around town. Andrew loves to grill and will gladly offer you a place at the table.
Andrew is a former Co-Chair of Neighbors United. His desire to make our neighborhood a Safer, Greener and Cleaner place, led his family to adopt their block, plant a street tree and start Lancaster Plogs.

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2021 Minutes

august_2021_minutes.pdf
File Size:	315 kb
File Type:	pdf

Board and Committees

KAtie Chaffinch​2020 - present

Tim Freund​2018 - Present

Steven Garner2020 - Present

Karen Gifford2020 - Present

Alexander King2019 - Present

Kendra Saunders2020 - Present

Andrew Whalen2019 - Present