The CORE Celebrates Milestone Anniversary
Ernie Stafford, the current Executive Director of The CORE, welcomed those who had been members from the very beginning and spoke of how, without them, they wouldn’t be doing what they are now.
By Chris Cole,
Staff Writer
Thursday, Sept. 25 was a special anniversary for The CORE – their 25th year of operation in Scottsville. As Ernie Stafford, the Executive Director of The CORE and the rest of the staff, the members and the community at-large get ready to open up the future with their community center, which is on track to open “hopefully by Christmas,” time was taken to remember the past and celebrate memories, members who have been with them since they began operation as a YMCA and even tragedies which brought the community together.
Stafford began the evening by talking about how “in the basement of the library” that “there were some women that were there calling for donations and asking for charter members” for what was going to be a YMCA in Scottsville and Allen County.
“Cal (Turner) Sr. put up money to match whatever they could raise,” Stafford continued. “I was told he thought $500,000 would be nice to raise.” Little did they know that over $800,000 and perhaps close to $900,000 was the final total.
“This is talking in the late 90s that was raised. When they went to Cal about that, that was a lot more than he expected. But he matched dollar to dollar,” continued Stafford.
From that initial belief in having a gym, a club, a place where the community could come and commune with one another, work out, swim laps, run or walk on an indoor track or take some fitness classes…maybe all those things at once for some…came the transformation of the old Allen County High School. Staff, instructors and students of a different kind would now be walking the halls.
After a video in which old photos were displayed and members who had been with The CORE from the beginning talked about how it has impacted their life, a former Program and Executive Director, John Botts and shared some of what went on in the early days.
“Imagine it’s a few days before Christmas,” Botts started with. “Remember how excited, anxious and eager you were for Christmas day to finally be there. Now fast forward to 2000 here in Scottsville and Allen County and in those days and weeks and months before the opening. I was a part of it. I felt it.”
Originally from Glasgow, Botts went on to WKU, served in the Kentucky National Guard, got married and eventually moved to Orlando, Fla., where, in his words, “there’s a committee” looking into what he did while living there.
The CORE board member Ron Turner prayed a blessing over the food and the fellowship.
In 1999, he and his wife and their children made the decision to move back to Kentucky. One thing led to another and soon he was talking with people working with the YMCA in Middle Tennessee. They mentioned that they’d be opening a new location soon in Scottsville, asked Botts to bring his résumé and see if the job would be something he’d be interested in.
Botts later said, “I’m driving on 31-E and I had one of those Gideon moments: I realized I only knew one person in Allen County. I didn’t spend a lot of time in Allen County growing up but my cousin from Glasgow, she was also at Western (Kentucky University), she (asked) if I’d like to coach a girls flag football team.”
He agreed but wanted to know who the quarterback was going to be. He was told it was a girl from Allen County.
“I met this girl and we had become friends but I hadn’t seen her in 12 years,” Botts said. It turned out the girl was Rebecca Pedigo (previously Dorner) and he bumped into her just before the interview. “God, this has to be some kind of message,” stated Botts.
Botts was then hired in February of 2000 as the Program Director. “I was amazed at how this community, every person, every business, every entity was doing all they could to make sure this YMCA succeeded,” he said.
Several programs began under his leadership as he ran a youth soccer league, a swimming pool was opened. Yet one of his most memorable days early on was a day that changed everything.
“I came in that Tuesday morning…I was going to be teaching a home school PE class here. We had about 15 students. But as I came through the lobby about 7:30…I soon saw what happened in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. Our country was hurting, our community was hurting, our staff gathered real quick. We decided to have a prayer vigil at the flagpole at noon,” he said.
Not long after, Botts was promoted to Executive Director when the first one left and stayed on until October of 2004.
John Botts was the first Program Director and second Executive Director back when The CORE was the Scottsville YMCA.
“I look back over those five years that I spent here. That time, both professionally and personally, were some of the best years of my life.”
Next came Botts successor, Chris Robison. Robison had been working with the YMCA since 1995 when a guy by the name of Mark McQueen called him up. He also with the YMCA in Nashville and asked him if he remembered that Scottsville had a relatively new YMCA location. “I remember you had an interest in that,” recalled Robison in his conversation with McQueen. “They’re looking for a new director and you might want to apply.”
Robison then recalled the interview in which a man by the name of Larry Williams, in rapid fire succession, asked him six questions in a row.
Another interviewer, Jennifer Emery, next asked him, “Where do you go to church?”
That seemed to connect with Robison as it wasn’t long after he, his wife and their two-year-old triplets moved and he served as the Executive Director from 2005 until 2016.
It wasn’t long afterward though that another tragedy shook the community.
“After I’d been here just a few weeks on the job, we had a tragedy here in Allen County. Fourteen-year-old eighth grader Chris Bucholz drowned in Barren River Lake,” he said. “I was deeply moved.”
Out of the drowning, Robison made sure to implement a program where “we’re going to teach every kid how to swim. Chris died 20 feet from the shore.” The program was implemented, in large part, thanks to a donation from former Citizen-Times owner Bob Pitchford.
One of the successes that Robison mentioned was the daughter of current Scottsville Mayor David Burch, Ella, learning how to swim.
The tone turned humorous however when Robison mentioned an issue they had with a bat that kept getting into the building. He stated a man by the name of John Newman showed him what to do in order to get rid of bats and that “for the next several weeks I was taking two bats a day out into the backyard and letting them go.” Then he had thought that maybe it was just the same bat getting in.
Perhaps though one of the biggest changes that happened during Robison’s tenure was when remaining affiliated with the YMCA became a struggle.
Chris Robison succeeded Botts as Executive Director in 2005. It’s a position he held until 2016. During his time, Scottsville YMCA transitioned into The CORE. He also instituted several programs, one of them taught young elementary students how to swim.
During the 2008 Recession, several YMCA’s across the Middle Tennessee Region, in which Scottsville was part, had severed their ties as the cost to remain with them was too burdensome. Many had become independently operated YMCA locations but the people in Nashville thought Scottsville was too small of a community to be supported without their guidance.
Eventually in 2014, the YMCA in Scottsville was rebranded to what it’s known as today, The CORE.
“It continues to survive and thrive in spite of the obstacles of being in a small community and it’s still doing very well,” said Robison.
In 2016, Robison stepped down as the Executive Director and Ernie Stafford took over. He was thrilled with being hired until, in his words, he “found out I was the only one who applied.”
Under Stafford’s leadership, The CORE has over 5600 members in Allen, Warren, Barren, Monroe counties and even into Sumner and Macon counties just across the border into Tennessee.
Stafford ended the evening by saying that those who remained members for the 25 years they’d been operating were “legacy members” and that they represented the best of what The CORE has to offer. Each was thanked with a gift and the evening concluded.
It’s only fitting that, as The CORE with its Project 3>>>30 set to open in just a few months, take stock of where it’s been and honor those who have been with them from the beginning.
These are just a few of the original members who have kept up their membership from the beginning to the present. Stafford stated that, even during COVID when they were largely shut down, they made sure their money was going to support them. “95 percent of our funding comes from our members, from you,” said Stafford.
