By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Bob and Pat Community Center celebrated a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday morning with a standing-room-only crowd.
Among the dignitaries on hand were Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, Rep. Barb Wasinger, R-Hays, and Rep. Ken Rahjes, R-Agra, Hays City Commission members, Ellis County Commission members and Melissa Schoenberger, early childhood specialist with the Kansas Children's Cabinet.
The $6 million new center, 2510 Canterbury, includes a child care center, a senior center, a kitchen, multiple conference rooms and a large multipurpose community room.
The Kansas Children's Cabinet and Trust Fund granted the project $3.5 million. The center was also supported by the city of Hays, county and private funding, including donations from the Robert E. and Patricia Schmidt Foundation and Dane G. Hansen Foundation.
HaysMed donated the land on which the community center sits.
The child care center, which includes a storm shelter, has a maximum capacity of 83 spots.
"They say that wisdom comes from experience and the future is in the hands of our youth," said Sarah Wasinger, president/CEO of the Chamber in Hays, who hosted the ribbon cutting. "Today, we stand in a beautiful facility that convenes these two together.
"This community center will provide an intentional space that better supports meaningful opportunities and activities for all of our senior citizens as well as families needing a nurturing environment for child care," she said.
Wasinger has facilitated the Child Care Task Force of Ellis County, which has worked to increase the number of child care spots available in the community.
In 2021, Ellis County needed more than 700 child care spots. With the opening of the child care facility in the community center, operated by Bright Minds Academy, 472 spots are needed.
"Quality and affordable child care is important for our families, and it drives our local economy by keeping our talented workforce engaged in important work," Wasinger said.
Moran said, "I am here to express pride in a community that I still call my hometown. ... The decisions that have been made to create this community center and create the features and services that it has mean that Hays and Ellis County, and this part of Kansas, have a bright future."
He said communities across the state all need housing and child care, and the community center and the Grove will be something that other communities will look to replicate.
"I know lots of times we look to Washington, D.C., to be the solution. Too often it is the problem and not the solution," Moran said. "But mostly good things happen when people in the community say we are going to roll up our sleeves and go to work and make sure this problem, this challenge is solved."
Moran paid tribute to Bob and Pat Schmidt, for whom the center is named. Although the Schmidts are no longer alive, their efforts to ensure good things happen in their hometown continue, he said.
"This is a great community and this facility, this community center," Moran said, "represents the best of people in Kansas and the best of people across the nation. Congratulations on being a great place to live, a great place to raise a family and a great place to retire to."
Hays Mayor Sandy Jacobs said one of her promises when she ran for city commission was to give the community's seniors a better place to gather.
"Today, we cut the ribbon on a facility that truly reflects who we are," she said. "A community that values connection, care and the well-being of all generations."
She highlighted the opportunities for learning across generations, with the child care facility and the senior center in the same building.
Grow Hays Executive Director Doug Williams thanked the many contributors to the project.
In near tears, he quoted Helen Keller, who said, "Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much."
Gary Shorman, board chairman for the Schmidt Foundation, said, "When I went to work for Bob [Schmidt], it didn't take long to figure out that community was so important, whether that be working to get the United Way started, Pat working with the arts council and it went on and on and on, program after program, project after project."
"Bob and Pat would be the last ones who would want their names on this building," Shorman said. "They did it because they wanted to help the community and help it grow and represent to others how important it was to give."
"As you gather together, remember those good things that we have in our community, because, on the way out, Mary Ann and I were saying, 'It's great to have a community where you can get together and celebrate the good things we have in our community,'" Shorman said.
"It is what makes us special here in Hays. It's what makes this community strong."