{"id":238754,"date":"2026-07-08T21:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238754\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:45:08","slug":"archbald-community-day-to-celebrate-town-raise-money-against-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238754\/","title":{"rendered":"Archbald Community Day to celebrate town, raise money against data centers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of residents started their week at a hearing to oppose data centers in Archbald, and Archbald residents will end their week with a community day to raise money for their legal defense against the industry.\n<\/p>\n

Collaborating with Stop Archbald Data Centers, residents will hold an Archbald Community Day on Friday starting at 4 p.m. at AC Field, 8 Export Lane, with proceeds from the event benefiting the group\u2019s legal fund. A \u201cProtect Archbald: Data Center Zoning & Overlay Legal Review\u201d GoFundMe<\/a> campaign launched in November by Stop Archbald Data Centers has already raised more than $52,000.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to do something \u2026 fun for Archbald because there\u2019s so much hanging over our heads,\u201d said community day organizer and Archbald native John Andreoli. \u201cThe people deserve at least a night to unwind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The free event will feature live music; activities for kids; food and baked goods for sale; and merchandise, including \u201cNo Data Center\u201d apparel and yard signs, buttons, candles, stickers, magnets, key chains and local arts and crafts. While yellow-and-black \u201cNo Data Center\u201d T-shirts have become a uniform for residents opposing data centers at local hearings, the community day will also have new T-shirts for sale featuring the winning design of a children\u2019s contest, Andreoli said.<\/p>\n

The community day is BYOB, and Andreoli encourages attendees to bring lawn games.\n<\/p>\n

Andreoli helps maintain AC Field as a member of the Archbald Athletic & Sportsmen\u2019s Club. He initially had the idea of reserving space to invite a bunch of friends for food and live music from his band, Molly Pitcher Three.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to myself, \u2018Well, why don\u2019t I do something with it that\u2019s a little more meaningful?\u2019\u201d Andreoli said.<\/p>\n

So, he reached out to Justin Healey and his wife, Tamara Misewicz-Healey, who co-founded Stop Archbald Data Centers to see if they wanted to participate, offering to take the lead and organize the event.<\/p>\n

In addition to paying for an attorney to challenge data centers at borough hearings and in county court, the grassroots data center opposition group used about $10,000 to hire a Harvard-educated environmental health scientist to conduct an air quality and public health assessment<\/a>. The study, presented Monday to a crowd of 600-plus at the Valley View High School auditorium, looked at the potential health impacts and air pollution from Archbald\u2019s largest, most resource-intensive data center proposal \u2014 the 14-building Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus above Business Route 6 and extending up Route 247, or Wildcat Road. The assessment projected that Wildcat Ridge\u2019s 588 backup diesel generators could emit hundreds of thousands of pounds of air pollutants and cause millions of dollars in estimated local health damages annually.\n<\/p>\n

Fundraising is critical, and it shows the community cares, Healey said, calling it amazing to see the community come together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to get lost in that monetary value, but for me, it\u2019s what does that monetary exchange actually signify?\u201d he said. \u201cTo me, it signifies care, that the community cares. The community is so invested that they are taking their own hard-earned money, and they want this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andreoli now hopes to make Archbald Community Day an annual celebration, with other seasonal events.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to get that spirit of camaraderie going and community, and hopefully,\u00a0 maybe for some folks even it\u2019ll be like a re-energization type of experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of residents started their week at a hearing to oppose data centers in Archbald, and Archbald residents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,2116,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-238754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-archbald","tag-data-centers","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}