Community: Creating and sustaining JCC with Heart

Jacksonville Community Center (JCC) started as a dream of a small group of local residents hoping to create a place where everyone is welcome and community blessings are shared, enjoyed, and enriched. Great News! That dream is flourishing!

As we enter fall, we have much to share with you. By the end of our last fiscal year, JCC, a nonprofit organization, presented 250 events and classes attended by more than 3,600 folks of all ages from our community and region. Many, many participants from Ruch, Williams, and the Applegate joined JCC programs this last year.

Private instructors offered another 176 classes on-site at JCC, and the facility was rented for another 170 private events. These extra JCC activities mean another 6,134 individuals enjoyed the Center’s amenities. And JCC’s renters brought another 489 overnight guests to Jacksonville to help our local economy!

In this bountiful year, JCC’s adult classes in art, wellness, and community education vastly expanded, and senior programs flourished. Our Youth & Family program alone had over 1,200 youth join in programs, camps, and events.

Since JCC is totally dependent upon donations and is not part of any city or county line-item budget, our board and small staff are deeply grateful for those who share our vision of a community that is educated, engaged, creative, healthy, and connected.

Following our cottage expansion in 2019 that added a 1,200-square-foot great room, catering kitchen, ADA bathrooms, and landscaped grounds, our great and gracious community has continued to sustain the operations of the Center through twice-annual fundraising appeals.

We will be entering our fall fundraising campaign soon, hoping for a similar response to that of our last spring appeal, which affirmed that our Jacksonville/Applegate community is a special place where people care about one another and about community. With many people’s help, we were able to surpass our goal, reaching total gifts of $44,335.82. Wow! What a testament to the way folks step up for one another!

Your help this fall, combined with class fees, rental revenues, and the grants we hope to be awarded, will enable us to offer plentiful programs and events in the year ahead.

So many visitors to our beautiful town have stopped by our center and asked how they might create something in their own town. Isn’t that a beautiful reflection on who we are?

We hope to see you at one of our programs. Be sure to check our website calendar for monthly classes and events at jacksonvillecommunity.org. We hope you bring friends, family, and visitors. You are our community, and you are welcome anytime!

Julie Raefield

JCC Executive Director

jraefield@jacksonvillecommunitycenter.org

Image 1: Jacksonville Community Center aims to bring community together—like at this recent free house concert—featuring the Mosaic World Chorus from the Applegate with director Harmony Sue Haynie.

*This piece is not included in the print version of the Fall 2026 issue.