Foundation Stories
Old Gregg School Community Center
The former Spring Mills Elementary School, which closed three years ago, is now the Old Gregg School Community and Recreation Center. Operational since 2007, the facility offers rental and meeting space for groups and classes. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute conducts courses year round at the center, and WIC also holds their monthly meetings there.
“We’ve made some opportunities for small businesses and some non-profits, too,” says Robin Bastress, president of the center’s advisory board. “We have a yoga business, and Pennsylvania Certified Organic, a non-profit, is also in the center. We have a local church—Penns Valley Community Church—that uses the facility, and on the weekends we have a farmer’s market that provides local foods, and we have wonderful vendors. We also have a community kitchen that is used by a local baker, and from time to time people use the facility because it is licensed and inspected for canning and different projects such as that.”
The center schedules weekend workshops, collaborating with the Centre County Extension Service to present some of them. The Penns Valley Conservation Association—PVCA—is planning to do a rain barrel workshop this spring and last fall they did a composting workshop. As for the center’s recreational capabilities, it represents 20 percent of the available gym space for Penns Valley. “During basketball season we have girls and boys basketball,” Bastress says. “During pre-season in the spring we have Penns Valley Little League Baseball and also Penns Valley Girls Softball. In the gym. The Little League uses the playing fields, too. In the later evenings we provide space for adults so that we can get some exercise, too, which includes basketball on two nights and volleyball on one night. The facility is also used from time to time for social gatherings. A dance instructor holds monthly dances that are open to the public, and he offers lessons on the weekends. So it’s a busy, busy place.”
However, the center advisory board felt that there needed to be a fitness center for adults and decided that the basement of the building would provide ample space for such a facility. Thanks to a grant provided by the Centre County Community Foundation, and many hours of volunteer labor, they were able to properly convert this area, which had previously been designated for storage. “The basement had been used very efficiently by the school for the needs of the school, but when it turned into the community center, we needed to change the focus a little bit,” Bastress explains. Thanks to the volunteer work provided by the tenants and some community members, as well as a local youth group, the basement was cleared and the renovation began.
The money from the community foundation was used primarily for paint and to upgrade the bathroom facilities. “Before the renovation the bathrooms actually had no walls,” Bastress says. “The toilets were there, but you had to take the risk if you wanted to use them. So we now have walls and doors, locks and doorknobs. The money made it possible for us to do amazing work and turn a basement into a fitness center. Now we have a personal trainer who volunteers her time but who also sees her clients down there. So we have a great opportunity to work with her and to use her expertise. The hours are limited for the fitness center right now, but we’re hoping to expand them. And because we are trying to make if affordable, it’s just two dollars a visit.” The low fee provides an affordable alternative for community members who would otherwise have to travel to State College for a similar workout.
The fitness center presently provides mostly free weights and work benches, but the short-range plan is to add some cardio equipment, like treadmills and bikes. “We’re hoping for some donations of that kind of equipment,” Bastress says. “We’ve been really lucky in that way. We have very generous hearts around here who are going to not only help us succeed, but make things available for the community.”
