Presenting: The Readymade Community Center

This weekend, we celebrated the grand opening of the Readymade Community Center in our community.

A little history. "Readymade" is a term used to describe the farms that were built for new settlers to move to in the early 1900s. The farms consisted of a barn, a house, and 160 acres of irrigated land ready for new settlers. The Readymade School was built in 1918, and continued to service as a school until 1984, and as a community center until 2010. I have fond memories of 4-H meetings and community dinners in the old building.

CPR advertisements for Eastern settlers to head west

In 2010, sod was turned on the land behind the old school. This weekend, we had our grand opening.

The community center is built in the shape of the original Readymade barns, a few of which still stand today.

It took over 100 volunteers and countless hours to build the school literally from the ground up. One of the coolest aspects is the floors: over 100,000 pieces of the original hardwood gym floor were removed, treated, and placed into the new center.

A school band, roast beef dinner, and speeches to thank the volunteers marked the grand opening of the new hall. A live band came after to get the crowd dancing. It was great to have the community together, including about 15 members of my extended family.

My Dad was the MC, keeping the crowd entertained

This hall is vital to keeping the spirit of our rural community alive. It will be a place for weddings, community dinners, fundraisers, and other celebrations. It will be a place to bring our community together. It will be a place for the members of our community to hold with pride. It will be a place for the hard-working volunteers who built it to be deeply proud of.

Thank you to everyone who made the Readymade Community Center possible. It truly is amazing what can be accomplished with the power of willing volunteers and a common mission.