Small but committed
Volunteer group vows to complete community center, but needs help
By ROSE HOOVER
For The Express
WINGATE — They’ve been at it since 2008, but the core group of volunteers remain determined and enthusiastic about their mission to transform the former Clarence Elementary School into the Mountain Top Activity Center (MTAC).
The group has held Wiffle Ball tournaments, chicken dinners, bake sales, gun raffles and craft fairs and sold chicken dinners, chicken corn soup, travel mugs and hoagies.
“Whatever it takes,” seems to be their motto in raising funds to pay for renovations to open the building to the public.
On Feb. 12, it was spaghetti served at the Moshannon Community Center . The faithful group of volunteers cooked and served a spaghetti and meatball dinner, complete with salad, drinks, rolls, and homemade desserts. They decorated the hall with a pink and red Valentine’s Day theme. Young people from the community were also invited to help.
MTAC secretary Stephanie Cramer was in the kitchen, serving up spaghetti. She says the group typically serves about 125 dinners during the annual event.
“It’s a good thing — in the middle of the winter — for people to be able to socialize and get together,” she said.
Cramer has been there since the beginning of the community center project, and she’s determined to see it through until the end. She says the group has all kinds of great plans for the community center, including an outdoor track, a gym, library with coffee and books… just a nice place for people to congregate.
“There are a lot of great things that could happen there for the community. People who have not been around for the past six years really have no idea what we have accomplished, and we have accomplished a lot. Just getting the building cleaned out, for one.
“But when there are only four or five people helping, there’s only so much you can do. I’m not going to give up until something happens,” Cramer said. “Someday, it will give back.”
Cathy Dittman is the co-president of MTAC and its head cheerleader. She is also the senior pastor of the Mountaintop United Methodist Charge, which includes four churches located in Clarence, Snow Shoe, Moshannon and Pine Glen. Dittman says the idea of forming an area community center came about long ago through discussions among the clergy from the Mountaintop.
Local Byzantine Catholic, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian (since disbanded), and United Methodist clergy, along with community members who were really serious about doing something for the area, started to meet, she said. They talked about establishing a library on the Mountaintop, a fitness center, before and after school programs, and a place where classes and other educational opportunities could be offered to the public, she continued.
“We really wanted to provide for the needs of the community,” Dittman said. “And we realized we needed a building.”
That’s when the group thought about the former Clarence Elementary School, which had been closed for 13 years and was being used for storage by the Bald Eagle Area School District.
It’s a large, sturdy, red brick building, sitting right across the street from the community baseball field where the Clarence Mounties, Coyotes, and Legion baseball teams play. Opened in 1921, for over 70 years its six large classrooms housed children in grades 1 – 6. The building had also been used by residents as a polling place until 1991, when the Snow Shoe Township Building was completed.
The school closed in 1995. There was no public sewage in the area at that time. Handicapped accessibility regulations had also increased, and there were many steps to the basement, where the library and cafeteria were located. Clarence Elementary students were transferred to the Mountaintop Area Elementary School, which had been expanded and renovated to provide more up-to-date accommodations.
The group approached BEA administrators about the possibility of obtaining the building for community use. At its May 2008 meeting, the Bald Eagle Area School Board “authorized the board president, superintendent, and solicitor to complete the sale of the Clarence School building, and the property upon which it is situated, to Snow Shoe Township for consideration of $1, pursuant to and subject to the provisions of Section 707(8) of the School Code.”
Dittman says Snow Shoe Township then turned the building over to the group, with the caveat that they would only open the facility as a Community Center. “We couldn’t decide 10 years down the road to turn this into a housing unit,” Cramer explained. The group filed and received 501(c)3 status and became a charitable, non-profit organization.
Over the years, volunteers painted the upstairs classrooms and built new basement stairs. MTAC also bought three new gas furnaces for heating the building and erected a security fence around the property. The building was connected to water and sewer mains. New gas pipes were installed.
Right now, handicapped ramps and bathroom facilities are at the top of the to-do list. These are needed so they can actually open to the public. MTAC has secured all the permits and permissions from the PA Department of Labor and Industry.
Now they need manpower, money and donations.
“The group did receive some DCED grants back in 2009, when we did some asbestos abatement – all safety standards were passed. But it’s been very, very slow. And the reason it’s slow is because we don’t have a lot of money. We do fundraising and so forth, but there are very few grants available for something other than programming. So to try to find a state or federal grant out there is really difficult and challenging. And that’s the bigger money; and that’s really what we need,” Dittmer said.
“We have very, very dedicated board members who work every event,” Dittman said. “They work hard and it’s all done — every single thing is done — on a volunteer basis. None of us have ever been paid.”
“So we keep pushing forward. We keep doing fundraisers. We keep having events,” Dittman said.
“People ask me all the time, ‘Aren’t you discouraged with the progress?’ And I tell them that I am not. When I think how far this small group has come, I am still enthusiastic about the project. I know some people are not supportive of the effort, but we are committed. We are passionate about having this community center open for the people of the Mountaintop,” said Dittman.
Anyone interested in getting involved is welcome to attend the MTAC meetings, held the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the MTAC building, 105 Birch Run Road in Clarence.
Please contact Cathy Dittman, Steph Cramer, or Shane or Jenny Lucas, if you would like more information or would like to volunteer your assistance. MTAC’s mailing address is PO Box 217, Snow Shoe, PA 16874.
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