The Fellowship House – Heroes and Villains

Time To Come Clean with

The Fellowship House

Heroes & Villains

By Jack Coll

     For the past year or so I’ve taken a ride down the Fellowship House gossip highway, the gossip highway is a funny road.  I don’t think people intend to gossip, so many of them don’t want to gossip although a few of them do, and they enjoy it.  I believe that most people gossip because they heard a juicy tid-bit, they heard a little interesting sliver.  They pass that juicy tid-bit along and down the line someone adds a little something to make it just a little bit more interesting and so on.

If you’re interested in a few facts pertaining to the Conshohocken Fellowship House, not gossip but facts, well time to read-on.  If you’re looking for some dirt, a juicy tid-bit, a little gossip well the purpose of this article isn’t to step on anyone nor are we going too.  The purpose of this article is to simply give you a few facts to work with, for the next time you throw something out on Facebook that might not necessarily be true.

Let’s take a paragraph or two and explain where the Fellowship House came from and the purpose of the facility, the actual history of the facility is long and interesting but for the sake of time and space we’ll present the short version here.

Back in the1940’s and early 1950’s, Conshohocken was a very heavily segregated community, I don’t mean in a bad way, we actually had very little or no violence pertaining to race, religion or any other kind of social ignorance.  What we had was each segment of our population stayed within the walls of their background.  The Itialans all went to church together, starting in the 1950’s they all went to school together, they had their own Boy Scout Troop, Girl Scout Troop, the Itialians had their own organizations within the church, they had Friday night Italian night out, they shopped at Italian owned corner stores,  had their hair cut by Italian barbers and so on.  Well it was the same for the Polish, the Blacks, the Irish, and where they could the Germans and everyone else in the borough’s population.  The borough’s ten different churches hosted game nights for their young parishioners and Rev. Marshall Lee of St. Paul’s Church opened a youth center for African American children in the borough back in 1945.  No one took offense, and everyone got along just fine.

In the early 1950’s it was determined that the borough needed a youth center, a recreation facility that might keep our children off the street, a safe haven.  It was the post-World War and kids were flying out of women like seeds out of a mouth full of watermelon. (Let me remind you of a statement I’ve used in the past, in 1962 Conshohocken had six schools with more than 2700 students attending, that’s a lot of kids, today, not counting any pre-schools we have one school with about 170 students.)

And so it was, a group of interested residents and business leaders, came together to build such a facility.  While many aspects of the community were responsible for the creation and building of the facility it was the Walker Brothers who stepped forward and took the lead in the project, Hervey and Newton Walker provided the mega-bucks to build the facility.  (If the name Hervey S. Walker sounds familiar well, it’s because Hervey built the elementary school for the borough back in 1958, following a fire and the Conshohocken School Board simply didn’t have the money)  It was Newton who really took charge of overseeing the expensing of the community center project.  In light of the Conshohocken community make-up, (all the different segments, black, white and about a dozen different religions) it was so named by Newton, that this facility shall bring everyone together in fellowship under one roof, and therefore the facility shall be named “The Fellowship House.”

If memory serves me right, and it usually does the Fellowship House opened in December 1953, the business aspect of the facility would be run by an independent Board of Directors in charge of directing the facility Executive Director, over-seeing program selection, and plan, and help with the funding of the facility.

Certainly we can all agree that for more than 60 years the Board of Directors have done an excellent job of choosing and hiring facility Directors, we’ve only had six Directors in the 61 years of operation.  The Board of Directors also set behavior guidelines, and program guidelines, again, I think we can all agree they’ve done a pretty good job over the years on that.

Then we come to financing the facility and programs, over the years the Borough of Conshohocken has contributed a very small amount on and off for 61 years.  There were years when the borough didn’t have any money so the Fellowship House received zippo, not to worry because for many years we had several main sources of income.  First, we (when I say we I of course mean the Board of Directors, and the community, we were all in it together) we convinced the Southeastern Division of the United Way to buy into the Fellowship House Community Center, and the positive programs being provided to members of the community.

In the 1950’s programs included, Dog Training and dog obedience classes, Hat Making Classes, lamp shade making classes, Arts and Crafts for both juniors and advanced classes, doll making classes. Dancing instructors would be at the Fel twice a week for dance instructions with a focus on Ballroom Dancing, we had music classes complete with instruments, choir classes, and the usual basketball leagues and kick ball leagues.  There were Tap Dancing lessons, baton twirling, charm and self-improvement classes, they also had story-telling hour and a number of other activities.

Not only was the Southeastern Division of the United Way one source of income, but the Conshohocken Community Chest who collected thousands of dollars a year was another great source of income, and the very influential Board of Directors members always provided a source of income.  The Walker Brothers, Donald Horsey, executives from Hale Pumps, Alan Wood Steel, Quaker Chemical, Lee Tires and many other prominent companies of the time were all involved in funding the Fellowship House.

Throughout the first decade of the Fellowship House existence things were really looking up, Al Donofrio had been recruited from Conshohocken High school to serve as the facility Executive Director, and finances were never a problem.  But the cracks began to show in the early to mid 1960’s, many of the businesses began to leave town or just go out of business, the Board of Directors began to lean a little heavier on the remaining business, the once rich and reliable Conshohocken Community Chest who solicited our retail outlets dried up, and United Way was asked to pick up the slack.

One thing for sure, members of the Board of Directors were very good at obtaining money from leaning on other businesses, leaning on the United way, and leaning on the community, and at that time the Board members even imposed a $100.00 a year Board of Directors fee, meaning they paid dues for the privilege of serving the community as a Fellowship House Board member. The Board members were good at making phone calls, and leaning on someone for finances, but at no time were they relegated to organizing fund raisers.  Once the money was acquired, the Board used it wisely.

When the Conshohocken Classic Teenage Basketball Tournament (Later renamed the Donofrio Tournament) was established in 1961, there was no charge to attend the exciting event, within five years in the mid 1960’s the Fel was in need of funds and the once free tournament was needed as a fundraiser to help support other programs.

As we rolled through the 1960’s finances became tighter and tighter, it became tougher to acquire program dollars and that meant one thing, it became necessary to cut programs.  From the beginning the goal of the Board of Directors was to provide programs with what-ever money they had.  When the Board had a lot of money to work with, instructors were brought in and the programs were plentiful, when the dollars tightened up, there were fewer programs, in essence the Board themselves were program directors.

Some of us might remember the Fel limping thru the 1970’s and 80’s with a solid line-up of kickball and basketball league programs, but the leagues were phased out and it just became after school kickball on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, basketball on Tuesdays and Thursdays, along with after school game rooms.  All seemed well, but it was relegated to an after school organized playground.  In the late 1990’s and early 2000 there was a resurgence in programing, morning and afternoon toddler programing was added, mother and infant programs were also added, along with the well needed before and after school programs for elementary students.

Then the cloud drifted over the Fellowship House, what little funding we had started to dwindle, throughout most of those years the borough’s contribution ranged from $8,000 to $12,000 per year, at times the borough contributed nothing due to the fact that they simply didn’t have it to give.  The big blow came in the early 2000’s when the Board of Directors were informed that the United Way organization would no longer provide funds for the Fellowship House, I’m not sure about this number but if memory serves me correct United Way at one time provided the Fellowship House with $150,000 per year, at the time the Fel Board was informed that finances would go away, we were receiving $80,000 per year, from the time we were informed that number over a four year period went from $80,000, to $60,000, to $40,000, to $20,000 to nothing.

The Fellowship House facility was in deplorable condition by 2003, the building had seen fifty years of Conshohocken activity, our children of the 1950’s that took hat making classes had now grown up and become parents and grand-parents.  The building needed a new roof, new plumbing, electric, landscaping and equipment.  As the dollars dropped the maintenance list grew like a seven year old child’s Christmas list.

The Board of Directors worked overtime debating the future of the facility, we would need tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring the building up to code, dress up the facility in an effort to make it a more pleasant environment, the Board of Directors were certainly at a crossroads.

In the mid 1990’s the decision was made at a Board meeting to start proceeding to investigate the possibility of partial demolition of the building, add an attractive addition, install a state of the art weight room, library, computer room, provide after school Tudors for our school children, explore the possibility of adding a swimming pool, and an oversize all-purpose room, not a gym, but a community room that could be used for bingo, parties, dinners and receptions.  It was a bold and aggressive plan, one thing for sure, it would take a lot of money to build it, and a whole lot more money to maintain the facility and programming.

In short the Board of Directors presented the idea to the members of Conshohocken Borough Council, explaining that while it all looks good, the need for their help was inevitable, both building it, and maintaining it.  A bigger facility meant higher electric bills, the need for more dollars for programs, we weren’t going to build a bigger building and let it sit vacant, we would need programs, and good programming cost money.  It was clearly explained that United Way was no longer going to fund us and with donations dwindling the cost of operating the facility from the time the renovations were made would fall squarely on the shoulders of the borough council and the taxpayers.

The Fellowship House Board of Directors raised more than a million and a half dollars for the renovations of the Fel while the borough contributed about the same to help complete the more than three million dollar project.  (Minus a swimming pool)  The borough council was made aware that running the facility could cost up to $500,000 per year. (The first year actually ran about $470,000 if memory serves me correct)  The borough funded the first year, 2004-2005.  That would be the last year the borough fully funded the Fellowship House.  After running fundraisers in an effort to raise more than a million and a half dollars for the renovations, the Fellowship House Board of Directors became a full time, year round, Board of Directors fund-raising machine.

If the borough chose to not provide funding for one reason or another, (and they have come up with a lot of reasons over the years, some pretty good ones I might add), the Fellowship House Board of Directors job has been the same since 1953, that was to run whatever programs they could, with whatever money they had, if the board had a hundred dollars, they were to run a hundred dollars of programs, if they had five hundred dollars, they were to run five hundred dollars’ worth of programing.

The problem and recent hoopla over the Fellowship House is this:  The Conshohocken Borough council promised to fund the facility, and they did for one year, funding has gone from a promised $500,000 per year, to $170,000 per year, with about $80,000 a year of that  money  going to salaries.

With the budget cuts to the Fel, the Board of Directors have been forced to cut back on the programing, not that they want to, but the money is simply not there.  The building is closed a little earlier, and at times opened a little later.  Programs that parents had grown used to for their children are no longer available, organizations that once used the Fel at no charge, (Conshohocken Golden Bears Cheerleading, CYO, meetings of local youth leagues) are now forced to pay a fee, not because of the Board of Directors, and not even because of council, but because of a lack of money.

Five years ago in the spring of 2009, the Fel offered for both pee-wee’s and elementary age children programs like Basketball, Volleyball, Hooked on Being Fit, Target, Tennis, Diaper Capers, Treasure Hunt, and Irish Dance just to name a few, most if not all of these have gone away.  (I could be wrong as I have not been involved for a couple of years)

In 2004 the Fel had a small library, (no longer there), the Fel had a computer room with twelve computers and a staff instructor, we had well attended beginners classes, well attended senior classes, (no longer there) and about a dozen other programs, what we thought would became an educational facility has all but disappeared with the lack of financing.

The Fellowship House Board of Directors is a guiding force, not the owners and operators of the Fellowship House, the Board of Directors is a group of volunteers, let me say that again, the Fellowship House Board of Directors is a group of “VOLUNTEERS.”  Not only don’t they get paid, but up until a few  years ago we still paid dues to sit on the board.   Since 2004, through 2014 the group of volunteers that help guide the Fellowship House have become full time fundraisers, when I say full time I mean year round fundraisers, not just a golf outing, but continuous year round fundraising programs.

Well apparently the board got a little tired of being away from their family, fundraising means long meetings at night, planning, and executing and spending.  They didn’t sign up as a full time fundraising events committee, it would be like electing a borough council and asking them to go out and raise the money needed for the yearly budget.

Now-a-days the hard working Fellowship House Board of Directors has been reduced to going before council time and time again to beg for the $170,000 in an effort to run some programing, beg.  I’ve never seen any other segment of our community beg for their allegation of funds.  The borough of Conshohocken runs on an eleven to twelve million dollar budget per year, our community center has asked for $170,000 to run the facility, the community center, your community has in fact received the money the past couple of years, after extensive public begging, begging to our elected officials who tell us, all about how they are all for us at election time and then force our community center to beg for their money.  The borough says to the board of directors they must provide them with documentation of expenses, the Fel board complies and more begging follows.

An alternative for council, a way to not provide funding for the Fel was to sell off the facility, (rent)to the YMCA. Council made it clear to the Fel Board that they would support and back whatever decision they made.  The Board met with representatives of the YMCA, in short, the YMCA would eliminate before and after school programing,  membership fees would triple, if a borough family couldn’t afford it, no free passes, the kid must pay or stay out, (the founding fathers would be proud).  A recent Philadelphia Inquirer Newspaper article stated that the YMCA had opened in a neighboring community and two full time parking attendants had been hired to direct traffic, I’m sure the residents in and around the Fellowship House would appreciate that.

In short, members of the Fellowship House Board of Directors rejected the offer in the best interest of the community, can you guess the first ones to speak out against the Boards decision.

Members of the Fel Board are tired, they have raised money for more than a decade, (hundreds of thousands of dollars) a lot of residents are saying put me on the board, I’ll help run a fundraiser, but are you prepared to run fundraisers for the next 15 or 20 years until you burn out. The job of year round fundraising requires the committee to meet several times a week, and be or get creative, sponsors of the fundraiser get tired of donating, what started out as “Hey happy to see you,” quickly goes to “Oh no, here THEY come again,” as they run to the back room.  Think about that, meeting several nights a week, year round, and it doesn’t solve the problem, the board needs to keep feeding the financial machine, it never stops.  On top of all the planning for a fundraiser, you keep your fingers crossed that someone shows up to the event.  In my more than 20 years involvement with the Fellowship House Board of Directors, in all honesty, very few members of council ever showed up to support a fundraiser.

For many years, (up until recently) all 15 or 20 members of the Fel Board would gather one evening a year, and form a phone bank, (for many years held at Bell Telephone/Verizon building at Fourth and Fayette Street, later held at the offices of ASTM) Members of the Board would gather, and call every phone number listed in the borough of Conshohocken asking for donations.  (Yes, it took several hours on the phone) and for the record, you’d be surprised how many residents, and who those residents were that told us to shove it.

A few things to ponder, some residents have complained that renting the Fellowship House out to outsiders is a bad idea, for instance, Lower Merion at times rents the gym for soccer practice, the rental nets the Fel $200.00. And why not run more rental programs you ask, a rental program is something we create in hopes that someone might show up.  Well for instance, we might hold a dance, maybe a Father Daughter Dance, the event grosses the Fel $200.00, building is open, two employees work the event, hours are spent prepping the facility, employees stay extra time to clean up, sometimes I wonder what the net is?

So What’s The Solution?

     The solution is funding the community center, and that solution falls squarely on the shoulders of our Borough Council.  Let’s point a few things out:  First and foremost this is not council’s fault, and that is worth repeating, the Fellowship House financial down-fall is not the councils fault.

Let me say this, as far as I’m concerned Conshohocken is the richest borough in the state of Pennsylvania (unless someone can prove me wrong.)  Our council deals between eleven and twelve million dollars per year, not to mention millions of dollars collected from impact fees, fees to be used for recreation.  Clearly there is enough money to go around to everyone, I’m sure if we went to a number of departments within the borough who gets a cut of that eleven million dollars and ask them if they could live on a little less so the Fellowship House could operate, we wouldn’t have any problem.

Having been a part of the Fellowship House Board of Directors for the better part of two decades I can tell you they do a damn good job, and that my friend is also worth repeating, after 61 years of helping keep the Fellowship House floating, they really do a good job.  The Board of Directors is a guiding force for the facility, it breaks my heart that this hard working group of volunteers is forced to beg for the needed dollars, the only arm of government in this community that is forced to stand up at a meeting and beg for something they were promised all those years ago, (referring to the $500,000 promised back in 2003,) to continually fund the facility.  The Board of Directors shouldn’t be forced to continually act as a full time fund-raising/begging committee, this should be easier than that.

What this community has at Sixth Avenue and Harry Street is a really unique situation, and every resident that lives in this town owns a piece of it.  Bridgeport doesn’t have one, West Conshohocken doesn’t have one, and don’t mention Plymouth Community Center, they don’t compare to our situation.  The Plymouth Community Center is a great facility but it was built as a business, families spend thousands of dollars per year to be part of it, it was set up as a profit making machine.  Sure we would love to have a pool at the Fellowship House, (the design of the building was made to accommodate one in the future) and perhaps a time will come when we can add a pool (keep in mind that building the pool isn’t the real problem, staffing it full time is.)

I was very clear that this Fellowship House fiasco is not the fault of council, I want to make an equally as strong comment that the Fellowship House situation is clearly not the fault of the Board of Directors.  The Board of Directors at the Fellowship House do not own the facility, they are just the volunteers that guide it, and guide it with whatever money they have. There were times when the creative funding of the Board has kept the building open to the public.  If and when council provides them with their allotted allegation the Board will responsibly disperse the funds as they always have.

If the elected officials could find a way to turn over the bucks due to the Fel, the Board of Directors would find a way to put the programs back into the community.

And that my friends is the solution, the Board of Directors has found a way, even in hard times to keep the doors open and operating, and that is the sign of an efficient Board.   Now it’s up to council to find a way to provide for the Fellowship House.  In the borough of Conshohocken’s 160 plus year history, these are truly the best of times, I’m sure council will find a way to provide the needed money without making a public scene, like have the Board drop to their knees one last time to beg, and I’m sure council won’t make a big public spectacle while presenting the money as though they are going above and beyond for the voters.

Editor’s Note:

Jack Coll is a freelance writer and photographer who

Has served this community in many different aspects over

the years including serving as a Board of Director at the Mary

Wood Parkhouse, a Board member and past Chairman of the

Conshohocken Sewer Authority, a Board member for the

Air Pollution Control Board, a former councilman, and former

Board of Director and past president of the Conshohocken

Fellowship House.

Any opinions expressed in this column is the opinion of Jack Coll

And does not represent the Conshohocken Fellowship House Board of Directors

or any other organization, website, or advertisers.