NACF strengthens the four pillars with thriving resources

From the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts to the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany, the New Community Foundation is bringing vital resources

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This is the second installment of a six-part series in 2020 highlighting the New Albany Community Foundation as it celebrates 25 years of transformative impact on our community.

Standing on the top step of the entrance to the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts, one can see the Georgian-style bricks on the north-facing side of the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany. These two buildings, separated by a very short distance directly across Dublin-Granville Road, are now connected by the new Rose Run Park paths and pedestrian bridge. Their origin stories and significance to the New Albany community, however, have always been connected thanks to the New Albany Community Foundation.

In the early 2000s, the NACF determined four areas, now known as the four pillars, where the foundation would focus its impact: lifelong learning, health and wellness, arts and culture, and environmental sustainability. In pursuit of these pillars, the foundation often serves as a convener, gathering the right civic and private entities to help turn ideas into reality. The foundation plays this role for both the McCoy Center, which opened in 2008, and the Heit Center, which opened in 2015.

When the school district was ready to build an auditorium on its new learning campus back in 2002, the original plan called for a modest cinder block structure with a budget to match, but the success of the first Remarkable Evening and subsequent student lecture with David McCullough had community leaders thinking bigger and feeling inspired by the recent public-private collaboration behind the new Columbus Metropolitan Library - New Albany Branch. They saw a need for a space where the entire community could gather to engage the arts and lifelong learning opportunities, but the question remained: How could they make this happen?

“In most communities, different governmental entities and organizations often focus more narrowly on the traditional roles, such as police and road maintenance for cities, fire department for townships,” says Craig Mohre, president of the NACF. “They limit their involvements to the traditional roles, and they often operate in silos, sometimes not communicating much or working collaboratively with other organizations. The foundation’s role was to bring people together and help them see what could be possible if we could all work together.”

One of the community members that the foundation involved in the initial stages of the McCoy Center was Francie Henry, regional president at Fifth Third Bank and the McCoy Center’s founding chair.

“The community foundation provided the vision and strategy that enabled our community to think differently about a venue to support our students, which could also serve as a community resource and a family gathering space,” Henry says. “They were also instrumental in researching similar projects both near and far that provided us the necessary data and knowledge to understand how best to proceed. Finally, they were able to convene both public and private funding and collaboration to build the one of a kind, best-in-class arts center.”

In 2010, Dr. Phil Heit approached Mohre and the foundation about wanting an organization focused not just on physical, mental or community health, but on all areas of health.

“I got together with Craig Mohre and shared the idea of starting Healthy New Albany. Craig, the great convener he is, and I pulled together a group of volunteers from the community, whereby someone said, ‘Let's start a farmers market,’ and another wanted to see a community garden,” Heit says. “Things developed from there, leading to Healthy New Albany Magazine, lectures and more.”

It became obvious to Heit and others that, in order for Healthy New Albany to reach its potential, it needed a physical location. At the same time, the City was looking to spur more private investment and provide its residents with health offerings, and it was out of this need that the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany was conceived.

“The City of New Albany took the lead with financing and constructing the Heit Center, but as with most of our community projects, it was truly a collaborative effort,” says New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding.

“The City, the school district and Plain Township have been amazing partners to the foundation in advancing projects,” Mohre adds.

Adding Up to Greatness

Statistics for 2019

  • 135 programs implemented at the Heit Center
  • 4,000 people in total at packet pick up for the Walking Classic, Mother’s Day bRUNch and Kids Triathlon
  • 374 events, community and school, at the McCoy
  • 102,401 attendees in total at the McCoy

Today, both centers are thriving. The McCoy Center, serving as the anchor of the Learning Campus, is in use 300 days a year; and the Heit Center, operating as a mainstay of the Village Center, currently has more requests for community use than the space can handle.

The McCoy Center hosts the New Albany Symphony Orchestra, national recording artists, the New Albany Ballet Company, National Geographic Live, a vast array of New Albany-Plain Local Schools events, and the foundation’s Jefferson Series lectures.

“I believe it is a window to the arts right in our back yard,” Henry says. “It is a beautiful venue where memories are made every day.”

The Heit Center includes a state-of-the-art fitness center and primary care, sports medicine and physical therapy services, along with countless community engagement classes, lectures and events.

“We are also seeing the Heit Center as a factor in attracting people to move to New Albany, as availability of health and fitness services are important factors for many potential residents,” Heit says.

Fulfilling the foundation’s four-pillar vision, the McCoy Center and the Heit Center exemplify what makes New Albany a unique and special city.

“They bring people together around shared experiences in those areas,” Mohre says, “which is what community building is all about.”

Bob Valasek is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.