Brittany Leigh Barnett is an accomplished woman: she is the mayor of Stewartstown and owner of the soon-to-open coffee shop B. Leigh’s Coffee. 

Barnett grew up in Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania, and went to school at Fawn Elementary School. After her elementary years, she was home-schooled. Barnett said, “home schooling worked really well for me; I worked independently really well, so I was able to work at my own pace.” 

Growing up in Fawn Grove, Barnett had friends in Stewartstown. She loved Stewartstown, and always liked the fact that you could walk around and go to people’s houses or get snowballs. Living in Fawn Grove, she always had to drive around. Eight years ago, she moved to Stewartstown, and she saw the area seemed to change a little bit. “People didn’t know each other as well; there weren’t as many stores or places to go – [it] just kind of seemed to have lost that luster it once had.” 

Barnett thought something had to change. Her husband introduced her to the idea of running for mayor. She thought she couldn’t do it but decided to give it a try, and she figured out a lot of people felt the same way she did about the town.

Barnett’s greatest challenge as mayor has been not being able to please everyone. 

“You have to look at the whole picture and see what benefits the most people. There are going to be people who don’t like your decision, but at the end of the day you have to know you did the best you could,” she said.

Barnett pursued the idea of opening a coffee shop in hopes of bringing the community together a bit more – for it to be a place where people could join together and enjoy coffee while talking. B. Leigh’s Coffee’s grand opening is scheduled for November 24 at 4 p.m. She is really excited for people to come in and enjoy the space that she and her team put a lot of effort into.

Barnett’s coffee shop has a meeting space that can be rented out as a nice study area for anyone who needs it. She knows that some Kennard-Dale students sometimes travel all the way to Shrewsbury before school for coffee, and she hopes a more local option will help them out.

While there are currently no job positions available for Kennard-Dale students, Barnett is always looking for people to help with community service in Stewartstown Borough – a great way for students to get involved in the community and include on resumes and college applications.

B. Leigh’s Coffee is located at 20 S Main Street in Stewartstown, Pennsylvania. The shop’s hours are not yet publicly posted, but customers can expect to be able to stop at B. Leigh’s Coffee to pick up their morning brew on their way to work.

The storefront reflects the hard work Barnett has put into it for the community, and Barnett hopes it will be a space for all to enjoy for years to come.