Community centers
provide endless possibilities & purpose STORY BY KARIS PRESSLER PHOTOS PROVIDED
60 GREATER LAFAYETTE MAGAZINE
ust inside the Northend Community Center, to the right of the main entrance, is a bulletin board with a spray-painted title that reads “Community @ Work.” Guests and volunteers brush past the corkboard peppered with job announcements while heading toward meetings, the pool, the indoor PlaySpace, or any of the nonprofit organizations housed inside the building. The space around the board seems to inhale and exhale every time the automatic front doors swish open and front desk volunteers greet guests. Several steps from the front desk Rod Hutton works in his office. As director of Northend, Hutton sees the comings and goings of almost everyone who passes through the community center. “If you want to see a happening place, you need to visit the Senior Center,” says Hutton, while pointing to a set of doors just around the corner. On this morning at the Tippecanoe Senior Center, more than 25 seniors play bid euchre, where cards feverishly flutter toward the center of tables, and the sound of knuckles knocking on wood echoes as players signal their wish to pass. While the groups play, several Meals on Wheels volunteers buzz about, preparing to serve the day’s lunch. Meanwhile, tucked into a quiet corner, the Senior Center’s Art Expressions group creates. Here, Barbara German paints a landscape of a rowboat resting on calm water, while Kay Pickett puts the finishing touches on a painted replica of the quilt square that hangs from her family’s barn in Michigan. There’s life and light, color and sound in this space, and throughout many community centers in Greater Lafayette. This is a community at work.
Lafayette YMCA
GREATER LAFAYETTE MAGAZINE 61
