Rec Center receives $500K

MARTINSBURG  A $500,000 donation from the fundraising arm of a local print-production company will allow for the complete expansion of three wings to the Berkeley 2000 Recreation Center.

Quad/Graphics’ Windhover Foundation, which was founded in 1983, announced the contribution to Martinsburg-Berkeley County Parks & Recreation during a ceremony Wednesday. The donation assures the project’s third wing  the construction of which had been in doubt for lack of money  will be completed.

At Quad, we believe it’s very important to give back to the community in which we live and work, said Pam Rostagno, the company’s plant manager who was joined by about 35 employees to present a check to parks board Executive Director Steve Catlett at the recreation center.

Catlett filed a grant application a year and a half ago to receive the funding.

The foundation’s donation brings Parks & Recreation’s total available funds for the project to $1,750,000. The city of Martinsburg previously allocated $750,000 toward the project, while the Berkeley County Commission donated $500,000.

The donation, which is the largest contribution the foundation has made locally, has touched many of Quad/Graphics’ employees on a personal level.

When Rostagno and her family moved from Wisconsin to Martinsburg in August 2005, her daughter Emmy, 14, and her son, Alex, 12, found an instant home within the Parks & Recreation community.

(Emmy’s) a big basketball player, and she said, ‘Mom, I want to play basketball at the rec center,’ and really that was one of the first things we got involved with, said Rostagno, whose husband, Mark, works as a customer service representative at Quad/Graphics. This is a big deal because on a personal level my kids connected with the community instantly because of this.

Six of the company’s employees are involved in coaching and hundreds of the company’s employees’ children utilize the center’s 16,800-square-foot facility, Rostagno said.

In this case, Berkeley County is a growing, thriving community, said Claire Ho, the manager of corporate communication at Quad/Graphics. Many of our employees will be able to benefit from this.

The three-wing expansion will more than double the size of the center to 43,550 square feet and will increase the activities offered by the organization, Catlett said.

We built the original center five years ago in March, and it was too small when we opened it, Catlett said.

As many as 75,000 people utilize the center’s facility each year, and more than 100,000 are expected to visit the center for its recreational programs once the expansion is complete, Catlett said.

The project’s first two phases are under contract with W. Harley Miller, and Catlett said the parks board will decide during its Feb. 20 meeting whether to extend the developer’s contract or re-bid for the third phase.

The expansion’s 12,600-square-foot west wing will contain gymnastics facilities that will allow the organization to host competitions. The 8,750-square-foot north wing, which will be dedicated as the Quad/Graphics Gymnasium, will include basketball and volleyball courts and will also be used for indoor tennis.

We’re just chomping at the bit to get in here by Sept. 1, (2007), Catlett said.

The 5,400-square-foot third wing, which includes racquetball courts and a workout center, will be under roof by 2008, Catlett said.

Racquetball is not something we have here now in Berkeley County, so that will be a good addition, Catlett said.

Community leaders were pleased that the recreation center has reached the funding levels needed to complete the project.

I am ecstatic that a business in Berkeley County would step forward, as Quad/Graphics has, and invest in our youth of the county, said Berkeley County Commissioner Ron Collins.

The project will still need funding for the wing’s furnishings and for 175 additional parking spaces that must be added to accommodate the center’s expansion. About $100,000 will be needed to furnish and complete the expansion’s parking project, Catlett said.

Catlett is hoping that state money or donations from private entities will contribute to the project.

Whether it’s used in the first, second or third wings, it doesn’t matter, Catlett said. We’ll still need that money.