Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Armezzani.
Hi Anne, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Step inside The Gathering Place in Clarks Summit, Pa., and you’ll immediately feel a sense of welcome. I am full of pride that our community center for arts and education is an actual place, a working, thriving facility that benefits so many in our area. Even more exceptional is the fact that volunteers have been at the heart of it from the beginning, sixteen years ago. We have been able to achieve our goals through donations and grants and have kept our costs to our patrons as low as possible, as profit was never our goal. We now have an all-inclusive, beautiful venue that gives so much to the people who join us.
The Gathering Place is a story of five women. I am one of them and have been Events chairman and Secretary for the past ten years. But I would not be telling this story without the other four: Dori Waters, Emily Rancier, Paula Baillie, and Betty Bellantoni (who passed away in our second year of working on our center).
In 2010, Dori urged us to help her establish classes for the adults in our community. We started small, with a few classes in local church basements, but the positive reaction of the community delighted and encouraged us. The number of classes we offered in art, music, history, crafts, practical skills, and cooking grew each semester as more and more people heard of our Abington Area Community Classroom.
After five years, Dori once again inspired the four of us to seek a place to call our own. We had outgrown the church basements and wanted a more permanent place to firm up our commitment to the community. After many sessions of questions and answers, we decided to apply for grants and renovate the bottom floor of the borough building. This area had been the fire/ ambulance hall, so it was a large, drafty, cinder block, concrete-floored hall that needed a lot of work, but to us, it was our new home, The Gathering Place. We “roughed it” for the first two years, improvising classrooms and tailoring our classes to the hall as we sought funds to do the area over. The borough supported our adventure and agreed on $100 a year rent, a very minimal amount.
This was a time of decisions, campaigning for support, meetings with architects and borough officials, but it was a time of such excitement for us! As the weeks went by, we watched this rough space transform into an attractive, welcoming, well-planned center that we marveled at.
It’s been so good since then, with every semester bringing in more people to take classes, teach, volunteer, or simply enjoy being in such an open, welcoming place. Our class offerings have expanded, we have a state-certified kitchen for cooking instruction, local artists fill the gallery with ever-changing exhibits, our Coffee House Concert series draws neighbors to share evenings of free live music in an intimate setting, and we have become the hub for the town when community events like the Ice Festival take place.
Also meeting regularly at The Gathering Place are several groups who bring wonderful ideas and people to join us. Some of the groups include a writing group, book club, weavers, ukulele, Missing Socrates discussion club, poetry circle, Mah-Jong, family game night, Literary Explorations, Irish session, and All-access Acting. We keep the donation fee down to $3 per person each session so that all can be a part of any group. Just listening to the discussions in any of these gatherings is such a rewarding feeling.
One group we are most proud of is our Memory Café, which meets twice a month. This is a social gathering for people living with memory loss and their care partners, and it is filled each session with a positive, supportive atmosphere that has helped so many.
Perhaps what makes The Gathering Place most special is its inclusivity. Three programs ensure that people of all abilities and backgrounds can participate. Each Tuesday, Craft and Chat is open to special needs adults to gather and create, plus they work with Master Gardeners to plant and maintain one of the parks in town. Another group, The Design to Inspire folks, work on their art and cooking skills a few days each week, and a third, Possibilities Evermore, bases their group walks, Karaoke, and Sunday coffee shop in our center.
About five years ago, we added another feature: a Neighborhood Food Pantry stocked with community donations. The Pantry, in the side lobby of the borough building, is small, but very needed. It is open 24/7 for people to come in. Volunteers keep it working and filled. It has proven to be a successful addition to our town.
The Gathering Place is busy! Our gallery sitters (all volunteers) help keep it running and donations keep us viable. We are doing fine; we are so grateful to all who come in to learn, create or just relax, and we are very proud that The Gathering Place can be such a positive opportunity for so many. Our humble beginnings have become a wonderful reality for us. The Gathering Place is where community thrives.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Obstacles/ Challenges
Our first obstacle was finding a place to hold the classes. The local schools could not, so the churches stepped up and gave us that opportunity. The next obstacle was expanding as fast as we were. We needed a home to keep growing. Finding that place, finding the funding, and convincing people to believe in us were big challenges.
As with everyone in the world at the time, the Covid 19 pandemic almost stopped our efforts. With community members seeking diversion and learning while confined to home, we contacted all who had taught for us and organized Zoom classes in all fields, even art. We also began a weekly newsletter which continues still. This newsletter helped us to stay in touch with our TGP family, plus it offered Brain Exercises, book reviews, recipes, and many other activities to keep our community connected. Masked and outdoors, our volunteers distributed donated groceries to families driving by. We survived in spirit and in our financial situation even though we did not apply for support funds from the government. We felt that many other organizations needed funding far more than we did.
Getting our goals and dreams out to the community has also been a challenge. Very often we hear, “Who runs this place? What’s it all about? Who pays for this? Are my taxes keeping this going?” It isn’t easy to convince the town that we are a non-profit, volunteer-based center that’s there for them to enjoy. But we are now an accepted, appreciated, well-attended place of learning and enjoyment. We four original women are rewarded each day as we watch the faces of those who come into The Gathering Place.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I was one of the four founders of The Gathering Place and have been on the Board of Directors for the last six years. I am board secretary and Events Chair for TGP. As Events Chair, I lead and coordinate with local businesses and professionals for many activities. Some include the yearly Ice Festival, the Strawberry Festival, Fall Solstice, State Street Trick or Treat, Local Authors book Fair, Fourth Fridays, Shop Small Day, Small Town Holidays, Our Town Student Art Show.
In addition, I join our volunteers in running the daily operations of TGP, the art shows and receptions, the scheduling of classes and lectures, the Neighborhood Food Pantry and fundraising. I help with the weekly newsletter and am editor of the Zine.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I have put myself down as contact person but by no means do I want you to consider this an interview for just one person. We would like to be recognized as The Gathering Place with credit given all who contribute to TGP as a group. The center itself is the reason for this interview, not me as a singular person. I do not wish to be singled out or recognized as the primary force behind TGP. It took all of us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gatheringplacecs.org
- Instagram: Gatheringplacecs
- Facebook: Gatheringplacecs
