The community came together over the weekend to give the Park City Senior Center a much-needed refresh as the Young Men’s Service League and Bob Peek of R L Peek Painting gave the space a fresh coat of paint.
Marianne Cone from the Park City Senior Center’s board of trustees led the project. As an artist herself, Cone had much to consider, from gathering volunteers and donations to picking the color of paint.
“It’s just so much lighter in here now. I had always gravitated to room because it was just much brighter in there. I picked the color to be well matched with the yellow cabinets and the pink fireplace,” said Cone.
The members and visitors of the center had been questioning Cone all week about what color they would return to on Monday.
“I kept telling them it would be black, just to mess with them a bit. I’m excited for it to be a surprise,” she said.
The Young Men’s Service League was formed as a way to continue the connection between mothers and their teenage sons in community service. This is the league’s second year as a Park City chapter, said Lindsay Cunningham, mom and organizer.
“I can’t even remember how many philanthropies we have now, but this was one that just came up, which is kind of a fun one to do,” said Cunningham, who was painting the center on Sunday with her son, Ethan.
“In each grade level, we typically have about 30 boys and moms. Each young man and mom have to do 20 hours of service, and 10 of those have to be done together. Every mom and son has their own leadership role within the organization to help out, and so pretty much the whole thing is run by the people that are also doing the service,” said Cunningham.
“We’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but I’m glad that we can give something back to the boys at work. This is really a life skill they’re learning,” said Cone.
Cone brought in Bob Peek, owner of R L Peek Painting, to help coach, supervise and complete the project.
“You think you’ll never use (the skill of painting) but just wait until you buy your first house and you’re elbow deep in painting projects,” said Peek. “This is what I’ve done in Park City for 39 years, so it’s my way of showing up and being here. We’re always looking for projects like this that can help out in the community.”
Peek donated his time and materials, with Benjamin Moore providing all of the paint and Shermin Williams offering a discount on brushes and other equipment.
For Peek, the major challenge of this project was the quick timeline, with just eight hours across Saturday and Sunday to complete it with the Young Men’s Service League. Second to this was the learning curve with the volunteers.
“I’m not used to having workers with no experience, but we just give some coaching, direction and advice, and then we’ve left it up to them. It is really coming together, and the boys are working their way through it,” said Peek.
Each day, the room was filled with seven to eight workers, which made the daunting task go by quickly, though things were still coming down to the wire by the end of the day on Sunday. Cone was excited to debut the freshly painted center to the public on Monday.
The seniors were pleasantly surprised by how much the paint really brightened up the space.
Joining Linda McReynolds playing dominoes were Sean Marron, Adria Palaszewski, Rose Marie Munos and Debby Peirce. They said they were thrilled to see the change.
“I love the color. It matches the fireplace. It used to be such a dark brown with cheap panels,” said McReynolds. “Just wait until the sun shines, when the light comes through. It just makes me feel good. I like it a whole lot.”
Marron added, “It’s pretty. It’s an amazing accomplishment, just the work that was involved with the trimming and all the edges. Kudos to those guys who helped out.”
Paleszewski agreed. “What I like is that it makes the place look really large and so clean.”
The old room was covered with dark brown paneling that had been unchanged since its installation in 1976. One of the challenges in painting the room was handling the texture and grooves between each panel. The ridges along the wall were difficult to coat, requiring careful consideration to make sure the paint didn’t miss any spaces or create drips down the lines.
Volunteers were coached in making straight lines along the gaps and spending their time in the grooves, while leaving the center of the panels up to Peek’s roller.
As Peggy Fletcher and Bea Mayes spent their Monday morning making a puzzle by the window, they said the room was happy and bright.
“It’s a fresh renewal,” said Fletcher. “It brightens it up immensely. I’m so glad they did it. It’s nice, really great.”