Neighbor Spotlight: Nicole Leckenby adds Pleasant Hills Community Day committee chair to her resume

Editor’s note: Neighbor Spotlight is a monthly feature that aims to let our readers learn more about the people in their communities who are working to make them a better place, who have interesting stories to tell or who the community feels deserve “15 minutes of fame.” If you would like to nominate someone as a Neighbor Spotlight, see southhillsrecord.com, select the “Post Story” button in the upper right corner and complete the form to publish your nomination. Questions? Email Neighborhood News Network editor Katie Green at kgreen@triblive.com.

Nicole Leckenby is known for wearing a wide variety of hats in her community — volunteer, administrator, blogger, children’s author, library board member, dancer and mother. But this year, she is adding one more role to her repertoire — committee chair for Pleasant Hills Community Day.

Leckenby, an eight-year resident of Pleasant Hills, is busy planning one of the largest community events in her area. Community Day, according to Leckenby, is a celebration of the place she calls home. In her new role as committee chair, Leckenby is responsible for arranging the vast details of the annual event.

Fueled by a love for her community and literature, the children’s author first became involved in public service in Pleasant Hills when she joined the library board nearly five years ago.

“From there, it just kind of grew,” Leckenby said.

Since her initial work with the library, she has served Pleasant Hills as a PTA board member, frequent school volunteer and borough council member. While she has been involved in planning Community Day in the past, this is her first year as committee chair.

Last year, the event was canceled due to health and safety concerns about the pandemic. Now, Leckenby is determined to put the pieces of this celebration back together after a year of virtual gatherings and online interactions.

“This is kind of our post-covid Community Day,” Leckenbby said.

Pleasant Hills’ 2021 Community Day will feature bingo, a dodgeball tournament, yoga classes, live music and a grand firework display in the evening.

While Leckenby has made the planning process seem easy, she admitted that it has been difficult to recruit the needed amount of volunteers.

“The whole planning process was touch and go with volunteers,” Leckenby said.

Because of this shortage, she has taken on more responsibilities — on top of her already busy schedule as a full-time worker, children’s author, blogger and mother of two active boys.

“I knew it was going to be a lot of work,” Leckenby said.

Despite this large workload, Leckenby said she is happy to help her community in this capacity, a mentality she carries into all her ventures.

Leckenby, a self-published children’s author, donates $1 from every book purchase to local and national charities. She said this desire to give back was part of the reason she decided to self-publish. She also used this opportunity to team up with a talented local illustrator — her own mother, Mary Dunn.

The duo hopes to continue publishing books as a way to engage with their collective love for literature and the community.

Pleasant Hills Community Day is scheduled for August 7 at Mowry Park. As the event nears, Leckenby encourages anyone in the Pleasant Hills area to volunteer their time as an act of service to the community.

“If you have a chance or an opportunity to help,” Leckenby said. “You should.”