Some things in life are serendipitous, as we all know. Taking a chance pays off, paths meet and new opportunities begin. It just so happened that as the venerable executive director of The Cooperage Project, Doni Hoffman, was stepping down, area native Ryanne Jennings was returning to Honesdale.

During her first week on the job, Jennings sat at her new desk in the small office on the upstairs floor of The Cooperage building; no one else was there and it would have been eerily quiet if not for the faint sound of jazz music heard playing from WJFF’s radio station studio next door. Jennings said she and her husband Jim (also originally from the area—yes they were high school sweethearts) and their two young children moved into a home on Park Street only one month ago.

They decided to move from Philadelphia in October. Their house sold in one day (surely a sign they were making the right decision). Suddenly, it was very real that they would need to find a place to live. “We were like, oh, what are we doing?” Jennings said. A childhood friend, Hoffman encouraged Jennings to apply for the job as executive director, as did many other people who knew she would be the perfect fit. At the same time, her husband Jim got a job in digital marketing at Yoga International. Call it serendipity, or as Jennings said, “All the stars were aligning.”

The Cooperage Project, only four years old, has established itself as a bastion of the Honesdale community and beyond. The non-profit organization, with its building at 1030 Main Street, has a mission to “offer a range of instructive and entertaining activities that will engage, challenge, and enlighten.” It does this through holding farmers’ markets, myriad musical events, workshops, performances and more. Just check out its website (thecooperageproject.org) for the full list of upcoming happenings.

Just like The Cooperage itself, Jennings has strong ties to the community. You may recognize her family’s name, Peck. Her grandfather was Art Peck who owned Peck’s Markets. Her mother Alison was involved in many organizations, and Jennings “grew up” at the Tusten Theatre in Narrowsburg, where she had a sleeping bag in the lighting booth in case it was going to be a long night. Coming to work at The Cooperage, she said, feels like she’s made a “full circle back to her childhood.”

The job of executive director includes overseeing many aspects of the non-profit, from writing grants to booking events, and “being the mom of the building,” Jennings said. The multi-tasking may seem daunting to most, but Jennings has experience working in the non-profit sector. After graduating from Honesdale High School, she went to Temple University in Philadelphia to study public health. During college she had an internship with a hospital, and after college worked for two years with Action AIDS, where she conducted HIV testing and sex education all over the city. After that, she worked at The Food Trust, a national food-access and nutrition-education organization, where she started as a volunteer coordinator and moved on to communications. She has extensive experience in event planning, communications and project management.

She and her husband wanted to move back to Honesdale to escape the claustrophobic city spaces and to be near family, where there is “a jackpot of grandmas all in one town.” Moving to the country takes adjustments. Their four-year-old son Desmond was playing outside and asked if it was OK if he got dirt on his jeans and if he could leave his bike outside. Other things like smiling and waving at passersby on the street when you are used to a different kind of hand gesture may take some getting used to.

Jennings is excited to re-discover the area and has noticed all the new and burgeoning business. She is also excited for the happenings at The Cooperage, citing the recent Weekend of Chamber Music performance. “Come to The Cooperage,” she said. “and meet me, or re-meet me.”