How better to find out more about the Wade Center than to hear from the children in our programs and the many volunteers and mentors that make it possible? Listen first-hand in this featured video! (Adobe Flash Player 7 or higher required.)

 

 

"In the heart of the community with the community in our heart" is more than a slogan. We seek to be a centerpiece in our community for spiritual, educational, recreational, and cultural resources. Located in the heart of Bluefield, near the intersection of routes 52 and 19, the Wade Center provides the perfect strategic location to meet the needs of the greater Bluefield community.

In 2005, we formed a nonprofit group that raised funds to purchase and renovate the former Wade School building, which was closed in 2000 as part of a school consolidation effort. This large facility, which is comprised of two separate buildings, is located between Bluefield Avenue and Highland Avenue. It contains a gym, a large cafeteria, an auditorium. Its 20 classrooms are once again being used as computer labs, art rooms, tutoring facilities, music lesson rooms, offices and more. The amount of progress we have made in the short amount of time we have owned the building is amazing.

Wade exists to promote and nurture the growth of the children, teens and young adults of the Greater Bluefield Community through practical programs and mentoring relationships. Our programs will address their spiritual, physical, emotional and intellectual needs, with the goal of encouraging positive personal growth that results in the development of productive members of the community. You can read about the latest ways we are going about accomplishing this mission in the NEWS and PROGRAMS sections of this Web site.

One of the questions we are asked most frequently is how we fund our work. In 2007, our funding came from the following sources:

  • 10% from fundraisers
  • 11% from grants from private foundations (we receive NO state or federal funding)
  • 16% from staff members who raise their own salary
  • 29% from the worship@wade congregation
  • 34% from individual and corporate donors

Hundreds of volunteers have helped us get where we are today, and we have a team of leaders on staff who help organize and oversee all of Wade's programs and activities:

  
 


Brian Checchio
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR


Bill Whitt
CREATIVE ARTS &
MEDIA DIR.


Vicki Mahood
PROGRAM &
FINANCE DIR.


Jon Shell
AFTERSCHOOL DIRECTOR



Lavon McClarrin
FACILITY
DIRECTOR

Amanda Warren AMERICORPS
STAFF


Daniel Walters
RESOURCE &
YOUTH DIR.


Hannah Walters MISSIONS &
COLLEGE DIR.



James Green
ATHLETIC DIR.

Gregg Neybert COOK


After-school
Interns
 
  
   

We've found that everyone benefits when the community comes together to care for the next generation. For example, three senior nursing students at Bluefield State College are fulfilling their need for a senior project by designing health curriculum for Wade and staffing a health room. Obviously, Wade also benefits from this and other similar partnerships. But most importantly, the community benefits. It's people caring for people, the way community is supposed to work, and we are honored to help make that possible.

 

Want to know more?
D
ownload a BROCHURE about Wade.
Or watch a brief video about our mission:


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