Welcoming everyone: New W.A. Foster Center opens
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on April 5, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/ETHAN SMITH
W.A. Foster Center leader Gladys McClary cuts the ribbon for the new W.A. Foster Center on Monday afternoon. The new center has enough space to accommodate children and adult programs without transition periods.
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News-Argus/ETHAN SMITH
Malik Lofton plays basketball in the new W.A. Foster gymnasium at the center's grand opening on Monday.
As throngs of people walked into the new W.A. Foster Center at Mina Weil Park following the center's ribbon cutting ceremony Monday, center leader Gladys McClary hugged nearly all of them -- and laughed with joy.
"This is amazing," Mrs. McClary said. "From the day they decided to build the new center, I greatly anticipated it because I understood the need for a new center."
Mrs. McClary emphasizes that this new center is a facility for everyone.
At the old W.A. Foster Center, adults and children had to visit the center interchangeably, at different times.
Not so with the new center.
There is enough room for adults and children to co-exist without any issues.
"This is a center for all people," Mrs. McClary said. "I'm looking forward to having more programming here. The old facility was limited with the rotation schedule between adults and children. The gym is much bigger here, and we can do more with it. Adults won't have to leave."
This new feature of the center, the mixing between generations, already seemed to be a hit among the people that came to the center's opening day.
Harold Holmes was shooting hoops with children -- abiding by the golden "make it, take it" rule, of course.
Holmes traveled from Cary to attend the center's ribbon cutting. He grew up in Goldsboro as a young boy before moving away.
"W.A. Foster was my second home," Holmes said. "And James T.C. Coley was my second father. He kept boys like me out of jail and off of drugs."
Coley is an iconic figure in W.A. Foster's history. When he passed in August 2014 at 83 years old, it rocked the community surrounding the old W.A. Foster Center on Leslie Street.
Coley worked at the old center for 40 years, overseeing the center's after school programs -- transforming the center into a refuge for many community members.
John Britt, now 78 years old, remembered those days fondly as he sat inside the new center on Monday.
"The main thing I liked about the old center is that we had somewhere to go, even in inclement weather," Britt said. "I spent many hours in that center."
Britt said the new center, and the Goldsboro City Golf Course, is within walking distance from his house -- a feature he is sure to enjoy as a golfing man himself.
"I'm going to use it all the best I can," he said.
All throughout the opening day ribbon cutting event, there was constant chatter about how much people enjoyed the new center, with words like "amazing," and "fantastic," flowing like water.
"This is way overdue," said Jack Gentry, who has been a regular at the Foster Center since 2005. "It is a beautiful building. All those people that didn't want it, they don't even know why they didn't want it now."
Roland Chadwick, now 81, grew up in the old Foster Center in the 1940s. He was standing quietly, soaking in the new center's features with a small smile on his face.
"They used to have boxing games, down at the old center," Chadwick said. "The older guys would box, and they would have a small amount of money on the games, maybe $15, $20. Then five or six guys would all hop in the ring and the last man standing would get the money."
But Chadwick likes the new center a bit better, saying it's made many improvements since the days when it was his old stomping grounds.
"This is better," Chadwick said. "This is so good. It's great."