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The 2019 Extraordinary Give raised more than $10 million for nonprofits throughout Lancaster County.
In the Southern End, it also worked to achieve a less well-known goal - increase visibility of nonprofits' and the work they do. Six local organizations work together year round to provide services to the Southern End.
Now they're joining forces for a special event geared to raise funds to assist them with the work they do. The second phase of the long-awaited renovation of the Southern End Community Association's pool will be completed by next May.
Bids were opened October 31 and on November 4 SECA's board of directors approved the start of the project. The Southern End Community Association is building on last year's success as it prepares for its annual auction.
The 2019 auction will be held on just one day. "We tried one day last year and it was very successful," said SECA board president Carol Gibson. "We hope this year's sale will be bigger and better." The design is almost complete.
Once that's done, the Southern End Community Association will seek bids to renovate its public swimming pool. "We expect to start the project this fall," said builder Steve Risk, who is supervising the project for SECA. "We got 95 percent of the drawings last week." This summer, the Southern End Community Association's programs will center around the pool.
"Our focus will be on the pool, all the renovations that have happened and those that will happen," SECA director Rick Kerns said. The recreation association is planning numerous events at the pool, starting with Free Friday on June 21 "We will have a DJ that night [Midnight Rebel]. I don't believe we've ever done that before," the director said. Members of Solanco High School’s football team spent Saturday morning, April 27, raking leaves and spreading mulch at the SECA grounds in Quarryville.
The Southern End Community Association's pool will have to last for another year.
So on Saturday morning, April 13, members of Solanco High School's football team and a group of adult volunteers turned out to clean and pressure wash the pool and get it ready for the season. SECA began draining the pool the prior evening and completed the work by midmorning Saturday. This coming Saturday, volunteers will be cleaning up the area and the old pool will be patched and painted. The Southern End Community Association has a new director.
Rick Kerns took over as SECA's leader on Monday, April 1. He succeeds Nicole Luecker. She had been SECA's director since 2014; her last day at the nonprofit was March 1. The job will allow him to fulfill a lifelong ambition, Kerns said last week. Making friends is tough.
It's especially hard, and important, for girls who are in the upper elementary grades, soon to move on to middle school. Renee Rogers realized that when her daughter, Myah, had trouble learning how to make new friends. It became obvious when Rogers saw that Myah's twin brother had no trouble at all. Rogers realized other girls may also have problems making new friends. That's when she decided to reach out to girls in fourth and fifth grades to bring them together and, hopefully, make new friends. Two local nonprofit organizations are looking for new directors.
The Southern End Community Association is searching for someone to replace Nicole Luecker. She has been SECA's executive director since June, 2014. Her last day at SECA was Friday, March 1. Leucker intends to take some time off before her next job. "I'm going to take a break for a little bit," she said. "I need time to reassess and reengage," she said. The Southern End Community Association, Park Ave., Quarryville, has scheduled the following activities:
School's out with SECA When school is out for selected holidays and in-service days, SECA will provide programs for children ages five through 13 all day. There will be supervised activities, including games, arts and crafts, and play. Children should bring bagged lunches; an afternoon snack will be provided. The program will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The days will be Monday, January 21, Friday, March 8, Thursday, April 18, and Friday, May 10. Registrations should be made a week prior to each date.  This year, volunteers will be holding the annual Southern End Community Association auction on one night, Saturday, November 10, instead of over two days.
In previous years, the auction started on a Friday night and resumed on Saturday. "We decided to change the format," volunteer Carol Gibson said. "It will feel different this year, having everything on one night, and we hope the community supports it. … And we changed the date from November 9 in case Solanco's football team has a playoff game."  The need is here.
That's why a pair of local agencies are hosting two adult education classes in Quarryville this spring. Solanco Neighborhood Ministries and the Southern End Community Association are working with Intermediate Unit-13 and the Lancaster-Lebanon Literacy Council to offer GED and English as a second language classes. The classes will begin in April and run through June.  Two girls from New Providence are building their own bicycles.
Both Rachel Armstrong, 11, and Kayla Brown, 12, are rebuilding bikes through a program run by The Common Wheel, a community bike center in Lancaster. The goal is simple.
"We want them to be able to swim a short distance by themselves, to trust the water, and not to panic," said instructor Skyla Townsley.  Three weeks ago they graced living rooms across the Southern End.
Decked out with tinsel and ornaments, lit from top to bottom, evergreens sheltered presents waiting for Christmas day. Last Friday, 159 of them returned to nature, stripped of decoration and chipped into mulch, waiting to be spread along Eden Township's section of the Low Grade Rail Trail. Crews from Quarryville Borough and Eden Township took just over an hour to grind the trees up and truck the chips to the trail parking lot along Bushong Rd. They will be back early in February to recycle the trees that are now piling up in the parking lot of the SECA Pool on Memorial Drive.  by Hannah Pollock
Chronicle intern Santa will be making a stop in Quarryville before Christmas Eve. He will be visiting the Southern End Community Association, Park Ave., for his third annual Cookies with Santa event. He will visit from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Monday, December 19. Warmer weather late last week allowed volunteers to get SECA's pool ready to open Memorial Day weekend.
"It came just in time," said Steve Risk as he helped spot paint the inside of the pool on Friday evening, May 20.
 The prizes are decorative.
"We're having filled Longabarger baskets as the prizes," said SECA Bingo organizer Tammy Rineer. The funds raised during the October 19 event will also serve a decorative purpose, SECA director Nicole Luecker said. "We're going to use the money to put down a new floor," she said. The SECA building, formerly the American Legion Post Home, needs flooring upstairs as well as in the entrance and hallway, she said. SECA celebrated the end of summer on Saturday by inviting dogs and owners for a swim in the pool in what has become an annual event. Their pool won't open for another two months, but the Southern End Community Association is getting its swimming program underway.
SECA offers a seven-week program starting March 28 to help swimmers improve their skills. |
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