felt by the community. “Te new school was a 30-minute drive from
Westernport, and the community really felt disconnected without the school in town,” says resident Vicky Brenneman, a State Farm agent. For a time the building served as a middle
school until it shut down completely in 2007. And so the structure and its surrounding 12 acres sat empty, a daily source of pain for the town’s 1,900 residents. Ten, a local pastor, Steffan Carr, had an idea.
“I had heard the stories of how horrific the ex- perience was for the community—almost like their heart was cut out,” he says. “I really felt [the building] should be open.” Without much of a master plan, Carr put in
a ridiculously low bid on the facility, and the county accepted it. In 2009 the newly christened Bruce Outreach Center (BOC) set to work, pro- viding assistance on a shoestring budget to a community in an economically depressed area. In just a few years BOC has made a measur-
able impact—serving meals, starting men’s and peewee basketball leagues, creating summer programming for at-risk children. Te gym hosts community events, and extra food goes to senior centers. But as with so many similar pro- grams, there’s always more that could be done— and the school has the space to do it. “One of the visions we have,” Carr says, “is
that we want to help families get out of the cycle of poverty—getting an education, getting off welfare. Sometimes what they need is a place to push the restart/redo button.”
BOC applied for and won one of 40 State
Farm Neighborhood Assist grants. Te organi- zation is using the $25,000 award to transition the school’s old tech shop area into three family apartments. In addition to living space, the fam- ilies are to receive utilities and child care, Carr says, while they work toward such life goals as going back to school or conquering addictions. “We’re hoping aſter a period of one to three
years they can walk out and be self-sufficient and their children will have a different trajec- tory,” Carr says. Te grant money and the community’s sup-
port are key elements in BOC’s success. “We have some incredible people who give hours and hours,” Carr says. “We couldn’t get grants because we are so new. Te State Farm grant is the first we received, and it was an important
statefarm.com® 11
Bruce Outreach Center supporters gather to celebrate the State Farm Neighborhood Assist grant (top). Recipients of the grant for Bruce Outreach Center included State Farm representatives and agents as well as community members.
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