We were there when the buses pulled up to the G.W. Carver Center in Bunnell, the end of a long day for summer campers who spent this day, not inside the air conditioned confines of the Carver Center, but at a Daytona Beach water park.
Whether it's providing a summer camp experience or after-school activities, Reverend Eli Emanuel, the program manager here wants this center to be a go-to place for whatever these kids need.
“We want them to walk in one way and then at the end of the day, we want them to walk out with a nugget,” he said.
The gymnasium is the only structure remaining of the old Carver School, which served African American students during the age of segregation. It lasted here in Flagler County into the 1970s.
The building then fell into disrepair and faced the wrecking ball, until “there was a community uprising" Cheryl Massaro said. She's the director of the Center. As she puts it "the county owned this building and they were going to close it.”
But what if, say five years ago people were not outraged at the condition of the gymnasium, decided maybe it's best to bulldoze it. Or even worse, just board it up? That's something Reverend Emanuel doesn't even want to consider, saying “even if we walked by here and see it and can't use it, I mean...that's devastating.”
But they're adding programs here.
Rotarians are responsible for putting in brand new ball fields.
An annual on-line auction raised thousands of dollars every year, more than $7,000 this year alone.
The goal here is to listen to the customers...or as Massaro calls them: her bosses. “What the community needs or wants. So if people come to us and they 'well, I'd like to have this dance class.' We work it out.”
And that attitude seems to be working.