Volunteers who helped make the Blu Jay Performance Center a reality include, from left, Chas Carpenter, Don Epps, Tanner Edwards, Seth Gabbert, Pat George, Clint Johnson, Brandon Johnson, and (not pictured) Kasen McKee. (Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)
By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com
PLEASANTON – On Saturday evening, Sept. 7, Pleasanton school district Superintendent Don Epps painted a verbal image of the struggle.
Moving stuff that had accumulated in the gray metal building across the parking lot from Pleasanton High School’s FFA headquarters. Cleaning the structure, including scraping rust and dirt off the ceiling of a building that for years had been used for storage. Insulating walls and the roof.
It was a project that began in March, and school staff, board of education members, and community members were gathered for a ribbon-cutting for the district’s Performance Center.
Other than a sign calling it the “Performance Center,” little had changed on the outside of the building, but the volunteers reworked wiring and installed insulation and steel siding to cover interior walls and the ceiling.
Eight lifting stations with new sets of weights lined a row down the center of the building with a couple of leg machines at the south end. On the west side of the space, a turf-like floor covering stretching from the north to south walls will give students the opportunity to do speed work.
The group of volunteers makes cutting the ribbon a cooperative effort. (Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)
Speaking to about 40 people who gathered for the event, Epps credited a group of volunteers who saw the need for a weight training facility and put the plan into action.
“We created a plan, and everyone played a really critical part in this,” he said. “We sacrificed. We worked weekends, nights. We laughed, we cried.”
“I remember one day we were spraying grit and I don’t know what off the ceilings. If we had to go back to March, I’d probably pass out right now,” Epps joked. “But we got it done.”
One side of the building has a turf-like floor covering for speed work. (Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)
He called the Performance Center another step for growth in the district. Whether its in the weight room or the classroom, the staff and parents want to give the students a chance to be what they want to be, he added.
He credited Pat George for his unofficial role of project manager, saying that he had been in contact with George constantly throughout the work.
In a separate interview, Epps said that although the ribbon cutting was in September, the training facility had been open for student use as early as June. He emphasized that it was open to all students, not just athletes, adding that his daughter, who doesn’t compete in sports, had been using the facility.
He said he expects that students will be out every hour during the day to use the equipment.
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