A Brief History of the Island Community Center

  A former school building, the Island Community Center began after the local school union consolidated island children to one school and closed the building down, gifting it to the town of Stonington.  Looking for a way to serve the community and make use of the building, a few local folks approached the town of Stonington with an idea.  A recreational style center for the community to use.  Uses would be similar to a YMCA, but tailored to the local populations needs.  After much discussion, decisions, and research - the Island Community Center was born.  It was 2001.  To offer facilities for all members of the community who could use it for their health and well-being became our goal. It is still this way today.

 

Our senior citizens gather to socialize and play cards; children participate in summer camp, DIS youth winter sports, and private birthday parties; fitness and hunter's safety classes are taught; and we bring enrichment classes, of all types that benefit our community. 

 

We operate under the guidance of a board of trustees that consists of local citizens and one selectman from each town. We staff as needed, currently a director, program assistant, and maintenance staff. Our board is a working board in that they often can be found doing tasks related to and for the center.  Each year the center requests funds from the towns to help support our budget and offer more community wide programming.  Also, as part of our funding we seek grants, send an appeal request and rent out the facilities for parties and private programs. 

The center depends on community volunteers to help keep the center open and the programs operating. We are always happy to have volunteers stop in to help us do more for our community. Through collaboration with community organizations and individuals, we offer a variety of programs and make rental space available for special events to fulfill our mission.