Memorial Community Center up against the ropes

EAST HOPE — The Memorial Community Center is in danger of closing its doors due to a revenue shortfall and a difficult philanthropic climate.

The nonprofit community center is supported entirely by private donations and receives much of its income from its annual summer Bodacious BBQ.

The event brought in $15,000 last year, according to Gayla Hatfield, interim president of the center’s board of directors. This year’s haul was only about $9,500.

“There really was a shortfall this year and a lot of our operating expenses are paid through that fundraiser,” said Carolyn Speelmon, who is the center’s site manager.

Unless donors step up, the center may be forced to close its doors at the end of the year.

Closure of center would displace a preschool and a half-dozen community groups which convene at the center for meetings. It’s also a polling precinct during elections in Bonner County.

The center was established in 1984 in the memory of five people who were killed in a sailing accident at Lake Pend Oreille’s Shaw Bay in 1982. Three adult couples — Steve and Joni Diehl, Bill and Kathie Yost, and Mark and Kathy Heumann — were aboard the boat when it was blown into a high-voltage overhead power line and burst into flames.

Kathy Heumann was the lone survivor of the mishap, according to media accounts of the incident.

Since it was established, the center has served a broad age and socioeconomic demographic in eastern Bonner County. The center also has its own philanthropic bent.

The academic-oriented preschool began with six students and now has 19, said the school’s teacher, Cindy Gauthier.

“We’ve just been really fortunate that the community feels this is important,” said Gauthier.

Downstairs from the school, the center rents space to the Clark Fork Valley Quilters, Scrappy Stampers, Hope Health Fitness and Alcoholics Anonymous. It is also used as a yoga studio.

Although largely dependent on the kindness of others, the center repays that kindness through preschool scholarships and its Christmas giving program for low-income families. As many as 60 families enroll in the Christmas program, which provides food and modest gifts, said Hatfield.

Children in the giving program get to pick out a gift for their parents and parents pick out gifts for their kids. For some families, those may be the only gifts exchanged during the year.

“It’s a pretty moving experience to be down here for that,” said Hatfield.

The center runs on an annual budget of $32,000, while the preschool’s annual operating costs are $24,000. Speelmon and Gauthier are the facility’s only paid employees and its board of directors are volunteers.

Along with private donations, the center hosts fundraisers to help bankroll its programs and operations.

But the gloomy economy has softened event attendance and charitable donations to the center. Moreover, costs have increased and fewer vendors are willing or able to waive fees for renting tables, chairs and other items for some of its bigger events.

“Everybody’s feeling it,” Hatfield said of the economy.

The board of directors is encouraging the public attend its upcoming business meeting to share any ideas or suggestions on how to keep the hub of Hope revolving. The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 14.

User fees have been raised over the years, although center officials are wary of raising them so high that they become unaffordable. Hatfield said more fundraisers are expected, but they can’t be held quickly enough to drum up on the funding necessary to keep the center open in 2013.

Donations, Hatfield said, are the best hope at the moment and she remains optimistic.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s going to turn around for us,” she said.