By GRAHAM JAEHNIG

gjaehnig@mininggazette.com

HOUGHTON – As Communities That Care (CTC) moved into the phase of organizing its Community Board in August, Ginny Machiela, CTC coordinator, said she would like to see more residents of Keweenaw County become involved.

“Keweenaw County is one of our challenges – to actually get people from that area. It is a little bit of travel for them, and it’s also a much smaller place, so it’s going to be one of our outreach goals – for the outreach work group – to pull in more people from the Keweenaw County,” Machiela said. “Houghton is a big place, it’s the biggest city in the Copper Country, so it’s easy to get people to come from Houghton, Hancock and the surrounding area, but it’s going to be more of a challenge to get people from the Keweenaw.”

Machiela said CTC does not want Keweenaw County communities excluded from the program or what it will have to offer once the program is fully functioning.

“We want to make sure that the Keweenaw is part of anything that we’re doing. Even if that means moving some of our meetings up that way, so it’s easier for them to come, as we start getting membership from that area, we will do whatever we have to do to accommodate (them) and make it happen.”

As for the progress CTC is making in its formation in Houghton and Keweenaw Counties, Machiela and the Community Board members are enthusiastic.

‘We’re really excited. We had a good turnout at the community board training sessions. Our community board is really coming along,” Machiela said.

As the organization will continually recruit more members, educational and training sessions will be on-going throughout the year.

“We’re going to keep having those educational opportunities on a regular basis, so people can continue to sign up whenever they want,” Machiela said.