Community Corner

View Finder: Welcome to Cranberry

An expo on Wednesday introduced new -- and sometimes international -- neighbors to community resources.

After moving from her native Ecuador to Alabama and then Cranberry, Catalina Jaramillo knows firsthand what’s its like adjusting to a new community – and the services and resources that come along with it.

“I can understand what people are looking for,” she said.

That’s a good thing, because on Wednesday Jaramillo was one of the volunteers at the . , an organization dedicated to helping newcomers adapt to their lives in the township, sponsored the event.

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The expo, at , featured a one-stop shop where recent arrivals could meet with representatives from public safety, education, health, legal, business and cultural organizations throughout the area.

Jaramillo said more than 30 new residents hailing from as far away as China, Russia and India and as close as Cleveland participated in the event.

Find out what's happening in Cranberrywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Some longtime Cranberry residents attended the expo and said they wished something similar had been in place when they first moved here.

“I think it’s been very helpful,” Jaramillo said of the expo.

Chelsea Puff, Cranberry’s community projects administrator, said this was the first year for the expo. While the intent was to introduce new neighbors to the services in the township, volunteers also helped newcomers with everyday matters, including taxes. Puff said they showed one man who just moved to Cranberry from China how to fill out his W-2 forms.

“You just don’t realize what you won’t know when you move to a new area,” she said.

“The feedback that we’ve gotten from people is that they’re immensely grateful [for the expo],” she said. “They were just thankful that they could come here and get information.”


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