NEWELL—An important part of the community has been undergoing a makeover! The NVN Senior Center has seen a lot of changes throughout this past year. The center is an important meeting place for the community. It serves as a central location for many different activities in the Newell, Vale and Nisland areas.
The members have been holding fundraisers for quite a while to try to fix all of the problem areas in the old building. The roof, ceiling, floor, paint and kitchen all needed some help. “So you know, with all the benefits from the little Whistle Stop Market, our Pi Day and bingo we’re getting enough money together to work on the building,” explained NVN Center member Patty Karas.
So slowly bit by bit the building has been getting upgrades! “We are working on our building! We got a wonderful donation from a long time resident, she lives in Florida now and noticed that we needed a roof from reading the newspaper,” explained Karas. “And sent us the money to get the roof done, $14,000!”
It’s done! The roof has been replaced. They are slowly checking everything off the list. Up next the kitchen needed work. “So the kitchen is completely restored! There was a huge crack in the kitchen floor from the cement shifting and cracking, they leveled it and put all new tile down, they did an excellent job fixing it,” said Karas. “It’s wonderful, there is all new paint in the kitchen—ceiling and walls all painted.”
After the kitchen the NVN Senior Center members moved on to the next fix! “The main hall has all fresh paint, that’s been done within the last six months, so we’re just really moving along,” said Karas.
This past week Karas and Zach Barnett rolled up their sleeves and started to tear up the old carpet and clean and paint the back storage room at the Center. The storage area is rented out by the Dakota Life Christian Center. “Terry Dutton, she’s been in here for 10 years. They do the food pantry in here, this is where she stores all of her canned goods and such, they come in here and they put the bags together and then they take them over to the other food pantry for disbursement,” explained Karas.
All four walls have been painted and the floor cleaned. Pastor Dutton donated two gallons of paint and will buy all new shelving to go in the space to store the food.
The next thing on the wishlist? The bathroom floor. “I painted the bathroom walls and made new curtains for the stalls. We’re hoping to do the hallway and the bathroom. We need to put new flooring down because everything shifts over so it’s got a nice big crack in the ladies room floor, it needs to be leveled,” explained Karas.
If you haven’t seen the NVN Senior Center since all of the upgrades, it would be worth your while to attend an event in the building and check it out. The building can be rented for events for $100 including the kitchen. Karas said, “We just want people to know that the hall is being upgraded and that it’s available to rent and thank you to everyone for their support!” If you have any questions or want to rent out the space call the NVN Center President Marge Adams at 605-641-1058.
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