Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce is preparing to party Thursday night, June 15, and welcomes the public to join in – grownups only, as there is a cash bar – for its annual meeting, with an extra purpose for 2023: Celebrating Wiscasset Community Center’s first quarter century. WACC Manager Pat Cloutier explained May 24, Parks and Recreation Director Duane Goud is on the Chamber’s board and is next year’s president. “And we were excited to realize that it’s (the Center’s) 25th anniversary and so why not turn it into a community celebration rather than just the annual meeting,” Cloutier told Wiscasset Newspaper.

The Center is a centerpiece of the town, offering sports, the beautiful pool and other healthy activities, Cloutier said. The Chamber has long enjoyed partnering with it, and it has been a big supporter of the Chamber also, she said. With recreational facilities in Bath, the Boothbay peninsula and Damariscotta, “It’s nice that we have something that we can call our own,” the Wiscasset resident said.

A $10 cover charge – “a cheap date,” Cloutier noted – gets you into WCC’s gym for live music and dancing with Boogie2Shooz, which Cloutier said plays a variety of music; food truck Tara-bly Good Catering will have food to buy, and Maine Tasting Center will have the cash bar; there will also be a wine pull and a 50/50 raffle.

Cloutier said about the event, “We’re pretty stoked ... It’ll just be fun!”

Susan Robson chairs the Chamber’s committee on it. The planning has been fun, and the Center is a wonderful place, she said. “And there are a lot of new people in town who need to be made aware of this wonderful resource,” Robson, of Wiscasset, continued. “It’s really friendly, they got different programs, they’ve got the Senior Center there. So we just thought we can tell anybody who comes (to the celebration) what the Chamber’s up to, they can see what the Community Center’s doing, and have a fun evening, a really positive community event.”

Jodie’s Cafe and Bakery is donating the desserts, she added. The event runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Goud is excited for it and for this whole anniversary year, including a July family fun day at the community playground opposite the Center on Gardiner Road, date to be announced. WCC opened Feb. 14, 1998, he said when Wiscasset Newspaper caught up with him recently in the Ames True Value Supply parking lot before he tended ballfields and prepped the appearance of the town committee to put flowers at the triangle at Routes 1 and 27.

At 25, the Center is in “great shape,” he said. “We’re doing things bigger and better and we feel like we’re going in the right direction.”

One change Goud said is working out is letting some events include alcohol. It can help get more rentals, he said. And, for Wiscasset’s younger set, this school year’s partnership with Wiscasset schools to host students on early dismissal Wednesdays is upping the numbers for the Center’s After School Adventures (ASA) program and other use of the center then. “It’s actually worked out really good. We average anywhere between 55 and 65 kids on those days, for just the ASA, and the middle school kids actually come down and use the facility as well. So on any given Wednesday, we have close to 100 kids in the building in the afternoon.” 

Goud said the Chamber’s June 15 event will be a great chance for the community – including the volunteers and businesses who help the Center – to see what the Chamber is all about, and he appreciates the Chamber celebrating the Center.