Jason Allgire

Jason Allgire is a “numbers guy” but also a creative thinker. More than a few years ago, he graduated from Albion College, a liberal arts college in southern Michigan, with a double major in English and history. Since then, he’s worked in higher education and with nonprofits in web design, admissions, marketing, and development.

For several years he taught English in Egypt with Mennonite Central Committee. That established a love for the Middle East and included adventures of exploration, getting thrown from a horse, heatstroke, and riding a camel without a saddle.

In Lancaster, Jason has “pieced things together”. Arriving as a transplant 10 years ago to get married, he at one point was juggling work for a nonprofit, managing rental properties, doing bookkeeping, and refereeing volleyball matches for the Lancaster Rec. He and his wife have a small business helping to provide housing for individuals with barriers to housing, with help from local social service agencies.

Jason enjoys music but plays no instruments. His hobbies related to that include collecting LPs from dollar bins and hosting and attending concerts in the Lancaster area.

One of his favorite activities is finding interesting and useful things at thrift stores and yard, garage, or estate sales. Many of the items in his wardrobe and at home come from this sort of shopping. This frugality extends to grocery shopping, which often includes deals, coupons, and rebates.

Food waste is Jason’s top pet peeve. He and his wife volunteer with an organization that provides food to individuals and organizations instead of letting it go to waste in dumpsters and landfills.

Jason’s favorite quote is, “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.” (poet Juan Ramón Jiménez via the epigraph of Fahrenheit 451)