Dear Marvell High
School Students,
On behalf of the Marvell Civic Club, I would
like to thank each of you for the donations to
the "Old High School" now known as the Civic
Club building. When the school system
moved, the Civic Club knew that it would be a
huge project to take the building and try to
keep it from falling down, little did we know
how huge that project would be. But with
the help of different individuals and massive
fund raisers, and a whole lot of volunteer labor
we have survived so far. The building is
now being used for Classic's Exercise every
Thursday and Civic Club meetings each month.
This past September it became home to several hurricane
victims from Louisiana. During the summer
months it is home to YouthWorks!, a
non-denominational church camp, which welcomes
70 plus visitors from all across the United
States to Marvell each week to do house painting
and minor repairs. The building also
houses the Marvell Food Pantry and Clothing
Closet. The Food Pantry provides food to
over 275 families a month. The Clothing
Closet has been wonderful when tragedies such as
fires have hit local families. The local
Head Start holds its graduation ceremonies there
each May. The Civic Club has hosted a
community Christmas Program in the auditorium.
There have also been safety classes and
exercises classes held there.
But, as many of you know with a building this
large, if left unoccupied, it would be gone in a
matter of months. We are trying to hold on
to this historic building. But the high
cost of heating and cooling, maintenance, roof
and floor repairs have drained the Civic Club.
Without heat the floors started to buckle.
This past winter we added heat to the building
but the yearly cost for this is over $1,500.00.
Without your support we were looking at the
possibility of closing the building. Thank
you for helping make it possible for us to
continue, for now, to have this building
available for our children to use and for us to
reminisce about days gone by!
If we all work together, this landmark will be
standing for years to come.
Sincerely,
Barbie Washburn
Civic Club President
