By Eric Lusk
Sports Editor
elusk@elkintribune.com

It’s fitting that the ribbon cutting for the new Clingman Community Center comes on Easter weekend.

Three years to the day since the old community center burned down, a resurrected version will be christened in its place.

The official ribbon cutting for the 6,000 square foot facility will be held this Saturday at 4 p.m. The public is invited.

The small eastern Wilkes County community has big dreams for its new community center.

Basketball games and leagues. Volleyball practice. Square dances. Wedding receptions. Blood drives. Exercise opportunities for area seniors. A general gathering place much like what the area enjoyed in the 40 years before a fire claimed the beloved old building on April 11, 2006.

“Not many communities our size have something like this,” said Edward Green, a volunteer helping to raise money for the center. “When people learn about this nice facility, I think you’re really going to see it used.”

Ground was broken at the site on Clingman Road just last summer, so things have moved quickly.

Insurance money from the fire, plus a $75,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development grant helped pay for construction of the building.

Organizers, though, are still raising funds to fill the center with needed items like pots and pans, silverware, tables, chairs, sports equipment, cleaning supplies,

“We can open the doors for business without a debt,” Green said. “But we still need money for the other things.”

To that end, a limited number of prints depicting “The Old Clingman School” are being sold ($100 framed, $25 unframed, plus shipping and handling). Also Afghans with the same artwork are being sold ($55 plus shipping and handling).

The original was painted by the late Mitchell Smith. The Sue Shew family authorized its reproduction for use in the fund-raising drive for the center.

Shew was a teacher at the Clingman School before the school merged with the Ronda school to form Ronda-Clingman School in 1965.

After the school merger, which moved students to a new campus in Ronda, the old Clingman school was converted into a community center. It remained that way for four decades, eventually adding a medical center to a section of the building in the 1970s.

The 2006 fire was deemed accidental, most likely from an electrical malfunction. But soon after the tragic event, the community rallied together to begin planning on how to bring the center back to life. Those dreams will be realized this Saturday when the ribbon cutting takes place — and the days, months and years afterward as the community has a place to gather for food, fun and exercise.

“We want the building used,” said Tommy Calloway, president of the community center. “We want to try and make it as accessible to everybody that we can.

“We think everybody is pretty excited about what is going on here.”

For more information on purchasing the art work or giving to the center, contact Ed Green at 957-7447.