Pine Hill Community Center: 25 Years of Showing Up for Each Other

About this episode

Brett Barry visits the Pine Hill Community Center to explore its 25-year history and community impact.

For a hamlet of just a few hundred people, Pine Hill punches well above its weight. This week, Brett Barry visits the Pine Hill Community Center to mark its 25th anniversary — and to find out what it actually takes to keep a place like this alive. The center's origin story is equal parts heartbreak and generosity. In 2000, a tragedy in the community prompted founders Florence and Bernie Hamling to transform Bernie's research and development space into somewhere people could simply come together. Twenty-five years later, it offers pottery classes, concerts, art exhibitions, a wellness program, a farmers market, a thrift shop, youth programs, and a weekly social circle — all out of a former eyeglass factory that was once a gas station. Director Colleen McMurray, who joined during the pandemic amid an ongoing renovation, walks us through the building and breaks down how the center sustains itself: a mix of private donations, grant funding (including a state grant secured in 2023), and a remarkably productive thrift shop managed by volunteer Berns Rothchild. Also featured: how the community itself has shaped nearly every program the center offers, what's coming next (a dementia…

People in this episode

Host: Brett Barry

Guest: Colleen McMurray

Topics covered

• community center
• local history
• volunteerism
• arts and culture
• sustainability
• small towns

Keywords

• Pine Hill
• community center
• Florence Hamling
• Bernie Hamling
• Colleen McMurray
• volunteer
• thrift shop
• local programs
• anniversary

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Pine Hill Community Center, pinehillcommunitycenter.org

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