Building to get new life as activity center

By Lori Falce, For the CDT

SNOW SHOE — After a year of hard work, a group of volunteers are well on the way to providing a place for Snow Shoe residents to meet, learn and have fun.

The Mountain Top Activity Center was only a dream at the beginning of 2008. A few people had an idea. The Clarence Elementary School, which was used only for Bald Eagle Area School District storage, could become a community center.

They envisioned in the building a fitness center, a gym with basketball courts, batting cages, community meeting rooms, classes offering instruction in karate, or adult literacy.

And then they worked to make it happen.

It only took a few months to form the 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation that would make it possible. In short order, BEA transferred the building to Snow Shoe Township, which in turn transferred it to the nonprofit group.

Then the hard work started. According to Jen Perry, MTAC’s public relations chairwoman, BEA not only donated the property, but the contents of the building as well. Since the fall, the group has been busy cleaning out 14 years worth of stored goods, and selling such items as industrial kitchen equipment, furniture, books etc. With the help of inmates from the Quehanna Boot Camp, BEA seventh- and eighth-graders and Penn State students, a yard sale was held last October. Since then, the cleaning and selling has continued. Over spring break, a group of Penn State students did mission work at the building.

What’s left? You’d be surprised. With the building, the group acquired everything from art supplies to band uniforms. Former students have expressed interest in copies of their fourth-grade English textbook, or a desk and chair from their second grade homeroom. So the selling will keep going until the building has been completely emptied.

Until that time, MTAC Co- President Cathy Dittman says the group is working on other things, such as designs for building renovations, grant applications to various state and federal agencies, volunteers, fundraising opportunities and future programming.

There is a Web site, www.mountaintopactivitycenter.com, that is largely under construction but still able to accept donations. The group is holding bimonthly meetings to work toward a day, hopefully sometime in 2010, when the schoolhouse will once again be open for classes, this time on topics such as dance or computers.

Organizers also hope to rent space to agencies that could offer services to Snow Shoe residents who currently have to drive to State College, Bellefonte or Philipsburg for things people in other areas can get just by walking around a corner.

“We want to give people a chance to be healthy in body and mind,” said Perry.