Matthew Mosher, a candidate for the First District seat on the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners, will hold a campaign event this Sunday near Three Rivers. The Candidate Meet and Greet event will take place in the morning at the Pavilion at Meyer Broadway County Park. That event will be followed in the afternoon by another, separate event Mosher is organizing on behalf of an organization he is involved with, called the River Country Resilience Circle (RCRC).
RCRC is part of a national Resilience Circle movement, which Mosher said is dedicated to personal, household, and community security during hard times. Its three main modes of action, he said, are “learning, mutual aid, and social action.” Mosher said the organization has been meeting more frequently since the COVID-19 pandemic began and has seen a concurrent increase in membership. Mosher said he wanted to hold an event before winter.
Sunday afternoon’s RCRC event will be “low-key and relaxed,” Mosher said. It runs from noon to 5 p.m.Activities will include a barter and sell area as well as a series of workshops on self- and local-reliance topics from a number of presenters. The workshops will include sessions on soap making at noon, emergency preparedness at 1 p.m., tomato canning at 2 p.m., bee keeping at 2:30, and seed saving at 3 p.m. There will also be a workshop session called “Demystifying Privilege” at 3:30, which will be followed by a brief Pledge for Non-violence at 4:30. Closing will be from 4:30 to 5 p.m.
The morning’s campaign Meet and Greet, which runs from 10 a.m. to noon, is unaffiliated with the RCRC event but will directly precede it. On the campaign event’s Facebook page, Mosher invited members of the public to “please come by and say hello. Let me know what your biggest concerns are for our district and all of St. Joseph County.” Mosher told Watershed Voice that “people can come by anytime just to talk about any issues they would like to discuss.”
According to his Facebook biography, Mosher is married with six children, and has worked most of his career in environmental restoration and youth development. He has “worked as a volunteer/employee at the city, county, regional authority and federal levels of government. I have also been employed by private companies and non-profit organizations,” including in local manufacturing. His first job was as a busboy at the former Three Rivers Big Boy restaurant.
In addition, Mosher has a variety of volunteer experience. He has volunteered with faith-based organizations, and served three terms of service in the AmeriCorps National Service program. He is a member of the St. Joseph County Conservation and Sportsman Club, the George Washington Carver Community Center in Three Rivers, and the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department Community Emergency Response Team. Mosher volunteers with local libraries and schools, as well as other education and community initiatives.
Mosher faces Republican Jared Hoffmaster and Democrat Andrew George in the November 3 General Election. Mosher is not affiliated with any political party, but said on his Facebook page, “I advocate for freedom first. Freedom is one of my core values. I want to advocate for the concept of freedom in county decisions. I personally believe that elected officials and government employees are in service to the citizens.” The First District includes Three Rivers city as well as Fabius and Flowerfield Townships.
All of the activities Mosher plans for Sunday are free and open to the public. They will occur in an open, outdoor environment. Participants may stay as long as they wish, and are welcome to bring a picnic lunch, but are asked to wear a mask if they cannot maintain social distancing with non-household members.
Although Sunday’s two events are not affiliated with one another, Mosher said he decided to hold them back to back because his pavilion rental was good for the entire day. Meyer Broadway Park is located at 59475 County Park Drive near the intersection of Broadway and Roberts Roads, and the pavilion is located near the end of the drive.
Dave Vago is a writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.
