Rockfish Valley Community Center in Afton has announced the successful completion of its fundraising effort to build an outdoor performance complex for the community, thanks to a partnership with Blue Mountain Brewery.
The stage and connected event shelter, to be known as Blue Mountain Pavilion, will provide a protected outdoor performance venue for events large and small, and will be the capstone of the two-year, wholesale rehabilitation of RVCC’s outdoor recreation facilities and fields. .
RVCC Executive Director Stu Mills, in announcing the 5-year naming rights agreement with Blue Mountain Brewery, said, “We are so grateful to Mandi and Taylor Smack for their extraordinary generosity, which has put our fundraising effort over the top of our goal in just six short months. We will be proud to feature Blue Mountain beers at all of our sponsored events here at The Rock, and to host several Blue Mountain-sponsored events here.”
Beginning this past spring, RVCC introduced six large “Super Saturday” social gatherings/fundraisers in response to the community’s requests for more outdoor events on the RVCC grounds and recreational fields. Each of these events involves entertainment, and currently the Center must showcase performers on a portable stage under a temporary tent.
The new stage venue will provide a larger, more professional, and better-equipped venue, and will hopefully help RVCC draw performers and events from an expanded market. The new stage is designed to provide a handicapped-accessible, elevated, 24’ x 32’ platform with a canopy inclined for sound projection and a secure backstage area for performers and equipment storage.
Blue Mountain Brewery provided the food for RVCC’s Jazz & Blues fundraiser for the Pavilion last summer. Mandi Smack was so impressed with the project that she and her husband Taylor decided to approach RVCC with a naming-rights proposal. “The Community Center is such an important part of Nelson County to us and so many people in the area,” said Mandi Smack. “The event highlighted what a fun, community-minded opportunity this beautiful space provides, and we were excited to offer to become more involved..”
In addition to providing a venue for the Center’s own events, the pavilion complex will serve as a much-needed additional source of potential rental revenue for RVCC. It has been designed to be the cornerstone for large outdoor events such as markets, festivals, weddings, fairs and concerts, which will open a new and exciting era of outdoor attractions for RVCC and our community.
Finally, the 1000 square-foot event pavilion adjacent to the stage will be a welcome, shaded structure for those members of the community who regularly use the RVCC grounds free-of-charge for impromptu social gatherings, picnics, baseball games, soccer matches and the like.
In addition to Blue Mountain Brewery’s gift, RVCC has received funding for the project from The Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge, The Schaeneman Foundation, The Bama Works Fund of the Dave Matthews Band, The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation’s “Enriching Communities” program, the Nelson County Community Fund, Virginia Distilling Co. of Lovingston, plus internal fundraising events and other donations.
Groundbreaking on the new structure is slated for early spring 2016, with completion planned by the end of May. All labor involved in the construction of the pavilion will be provided by the Building Goodness Foundation of Charlottesville, with assistance from RVCC’s volunteer corps and local builders/contractors who regularly provide expertise and manpower for the Center’s building and renovation projects.
