Holley Hawks Community Center project takes flight

Holley's Community Center is well on its way to becoming a full service center for both youth, adults and senior citizens. With the formation of the Holley Hawks Youth Advisory Board, students and an advisory panel have been brainstorming ways to develop after school programs for the children. The center presently serves senior citizens from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. and is empty afterwards. "It would be a perfect place to host an after school program," Kathy LaLonde, Community Action's program planner said.

Genesee Community College received a grant from the Department of Education and from that grant will come a computer lab that will be housed in the community center. The "CyberSpace" lab, as it will be called, will be open to the youth as well as the senior citizens. Task Force member and high school student Brittany Williams thanked Nathaniel Varland and Peter Martino from GCC for the computers. "They have been installed and are now connected to the internet but because of some technical problems are not available for public use," she said.

LaLonde said the center is also a site that offers assistance to people in crisis. "We have a food pantry and a clothing closet that operates from the center and we provide Family Development, a program developed by Cornell Cooperative Extension in conjunction with Community Action that helps low income families and individuals set goals toward attaining self sufficiency and remaining independent," she explained.

Community Action is the umbrella agency for the Community Center. "We received $1,000 from the Genesee-Orleans Youth Bureau to develop this task force. Assemblyman Charlie Nesbitt and Senator George Maziarz were instrumental in Genesee-Orleans Youth Bureau receiving the grant," she said, adding that the task force started out with only two students. "We now have eight students working hard to write grants to get money to get the center up and running. The long term goal is to have enough money to hire an adult to supervise and coordinate activities at the center."

The project got underway in December when a community presentation was hosted at the center.

LaLonde commended Nate Randall and Williams, who are students at Holley High School, for their commitment to the board. "They have been able to recruit enough other members that they have been able to break down the tasks into various committees. The eighth graders are painting a mural in the center right now," LaLonde said.

"The task force has increased to the point where we have divided into sections to get the work done more efficiently," Williams said.

Williams, who grew up in Holley, said she knows exactly how little there was to do in and around town, and that is why she became involved in the task force. "It's an important activity for the community because everyone needs a place where they can go to get away and make new friends," she said. "By creating a fun place for people to go and 'hang out' we are also helping to get them off the streets and provide them with alternatives to drugs and violence. We hope the community realizes that while this is a youth-organized operation, we are not neglecting the other members of the community," Williams said. "We want to work closely with the senior citizens so that they have a place to come during the day and the youth have a place to go after school."

While adults have helped the task force toward achieving their goal of a fully operational community center, Williams said the teens have done the research and come up with the ideas. "We welcome the community to come to our meetings which are held Wednesdays from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Community input is greatly appreciated."

Williams said that the task force's public relations director and financial advisor, Elizabeth Long and Lisa Hansen, are working toward spreading the word about the community center and are working on obtaining funding. "Donations from the community are always greatly appreciated," Williams said. Donations can be sent to: 75 Public Square, Holley, NY 14470, Attention Holley Hawks Nest Community Center.