Reunion Connects The Past And Present

The Klothes Kloset located at New Hope Community, or the old Jefferson Elementary Building, serves the community with a variety of programs.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The old Jefferson Elementary School building has spent its life serving the public, first as an elementary school building until the new elementary school building opened over ten years ago.

Today, it still serves the public as the New Hope Community Center, helping the residents of Mahaska County and Oskaloosa during times of need.

People arrive at the building, remembering the time they spent there as a child, reminiscing of friends and teachers.

New Hope Community opened its doors on June 6th through the 8th to hear and share in those stories from the past and giving those people a chance to see what New Hope is doing now to serve the community.

To support those missions in the community, New Hope hosted school tours from Noon to 2 pm on all three days.

There was a bake sale and silent auction all three days as well. Friday featured pork loin by Wood iron Grille, while Saturday was a Beef burger dinner for just $6.

Saturday evening also included a live auction at 6:30 with live music to follow. An open mic was available for people to share memories.

Blaine Vos of New Hope Community helps to keep the programs running while working to find the funding.

New Hope has community gardens, a pregnancy support center, a thrift store, and support for the homeless.

The reunion helped to also fundraise for New Hope. The building’s boiler system has failed, and the cost to fix that equipment would be a large portion of their budget. The flat roof and the drainage associated with that are also in need of some repairs. Those repairs would leave little to nothing to help community members.

Grants, private donations, churches, and funds raised at the thrift store make up the bulk of the budget. “We’re working on a shoestring, that’s for sure,” Vos explained.

“It was a fundraiser, but it’s also a reunion because of the impact Jefferson’s had on people’s lives,” Vos added.

Posted by on Jun 9 2019. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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