Repurposing a community’s school

The term repurposing has become an accepted way of describing the process of recycling or finding a new use for something that is outdated, worn out, or useless in its current state or condition. That is exactly what happened to McKinley Elementary School when it became too old and the repairs too costly to make it feasible to continue to serve as a school. So they transferred the students to another, newer, school and closed McKinley. For a little while, it sat empty until our church and others decided to open it as a community center to meet the needs of local residents. Now, less than two years after it was closed, it has new life as a center which continues to serve the community where it is located. Each month several hundred eligible families enter its doors for the free distribution of taxable items, donated furniture, clothes, pet food, and many other services. As McKinley Community Outreach Center, the empty school has been repurposed

Today I took my photowalk around the grounds of McKinley, instead of trekking through the park on my usual trail, because this was the day of the first annual 5K race in support of the McKinley Community Outreach Center, and I had been asked to take some pictures. As you might expect, I took a lot of pictures and had fun doing it! Today’s post is a small selection of my photos from the event, including pictures of the runners and their supporters before, during, and after the race. Hopefully you can see the excitement, positive energy and spirit of this event from the faces shown here (Click on the first picture to scroll through the gallery).

That’s it for today’s post.
It was a great occasion.

Carolyn aka Skip