Together, It's Possible

Together, It's Possible

It’s Saturday night at the Potomac Highlands Recreational Center as a teenager rolls out of the skating rink. He glides across a carpeted room and stops at a pool table where a friend, also wearing inline skates, hands him a cue stick.

Across the room, several teens who played miniature golf earlier chow down on pizza and French fries at the snack bar.

The center, in Franklin, W.Va., is the result of true community spirit. For years, Franklin parents had longed for a place where their teenagers could hang out, keeping them off the streets and away from alcohol and drugs. The nearest town with a teen facility was more than 40 miles and several mountains away.

With just 860 residents, Franklin still is the largest town in Pendleton County, so locals decided to take matters into their own hands. And once they got together, fueled with a vision from local physician, Dr. Luke Eye, there was no stopping them.

Built by the hands and hearts of citizen volunteers, the center opened in the spring of 1999, and now kids, adults, and entire families from adjoining counties come to Franklin when they want to have some fun.

“It was a great community effort. All I did was keep it going when things slowed down,” Eye says. “It’s a lot nicer than I (had) expected.”

In the beginning, Eye and other organizers decided the facility could be built for about $200,000—a large amount for an area so small. The process would be slow, and costly.

Eye suggested 1,000 people donate $200. But the center would need a lot more support than that, and not all of it monetary.

“It was all done with volunteer labor, except the building and putting the bowling lanes down,” explains Paul Mallow, Potomac Highlands’ treasurer. He recalls how local resident Jerry Warner put his farm and business on hold to supervise the construction.

“He donated about a year of his time to see to things,” Mallow says.

Other supporters jumped in feet first as well. They picked up their tools to dig pits and cut cords of wood. They sold thousands of pounds of pit-cooked pork and beef during festivals. They held turkey dinner benefits and solicited door-to-door to get the $200 donations. Eye and his wife even bought a $700 quilt and then raffled it, raising more than $5,000.

Then the building process began. Many people working regular jobs came to help with the construction at night, often working until midnight or later. And when used bowling lanes became available for cheap, individuals took the gutters home to sand them smooth, and refurbished the lockers and other equipment.

But even with all the calloused hands and tired eyes, the final step required still more effort.

“In the end, with the work about finished, and wanting to open, we still had a debt,” Eye recalls. “We contacted Congressman Harold Michaels and he got us some help from the state to get us out of debt.”

And Franklin came away with much more than they had bargained for. Mallow estimates the value of the finished recreation center at four to five times the original $200,000 assessment. Today, it’s debt-free and self-supporting.

More importantly, it’s a healthy and safe place for Pendelton County youth of all ages.

“College-age kids . . . sometimes there are 20 or 30 skating, and we have a lot of birthday parties for 6 to 13-year-olds,” says Richard McLaughlin, Potomac Highlands manager. “A lot of kids come in to shoot pool, and on Friday and Saturday nights the tables are full.”

The center, he says, provides the exact atmosphere that was intended. Plus, it was built with community pride.

Sandy Hevener is a writer in Blue Grass, Va.

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