The old Roosevelt gym at Roosevelt Elementary School in Hubbard has been cherished by a select few programs as a place that they were able to call home.

After being used primarily by local athletic teams within the Hubbard Exempted

Village School District, the Hubbard Board of Education is now working with the Hubbard Youth Coalition to renovate the gym and open the building to the public.

Any big project is built on teamwork, cohesiveness and the ability to bring a plan together, and the two organizations have formulated a strategy and moved forward with an idea that will be better for the community as a whole. It’s great to see.

Teamwork, does in fact, make the dream work.

Not only will the renovations pay off for the athletic teams, who will still have the first choice when it comes to using the space, but opening the building to the public moving forward will be a better use of the space in the long run.

The space is used by local athletic teams at certain points of the day and goes unused for long stretches of the day. With the youth coalition and the school board partnering together, the building will now be able to be used for different activities, such as birthday parties, team-building exercises and other events.

James Chaney, president of the Hubbard Youth Coalition, recently told our reporter that some renovations at the school will include emptying out the remaining classrooms, adding a gratitude wall for donors, batting cages and pitching machines for local baseball and softball teams, as well as eliminating a set of bleachers and installing high-impact-resistant drywall.

This is a sign of a bright future ahead for the old Roosevelt Elementary School and it’s also a great example of finding ways to use pieces of the community to their full potential. Oftentimes, old buildings get forgotten or are passed on when considering renovations or projects such as the one at Roosevelt. But this example is one of taking what is given to you and finding a way to make it work positively for the community.

That’s something that shouldn’t be looked over.

Kudos to the Cody A. Pitts Foundation as well, which is donating funds for the renovation along with money for a food pantry inside the school district.