STEUBENVILLE - The coming year should see the opening of a public pavilion that will be used for events and available for rentals to help raise funds for the Brightway Center leadership and Christian development camp being established near Smithfield.
Kara Bright, a longtime Buckeye Local educator and basketball coach who died in 2005, bequeathed his life savings and family farm to form the center, which has been in the works since he formed a nondenominational Christian youth camp on his family farm.
Brightway Center will use a portion of the 174-acre farm off county Road 15, explained Daryle Griffin, president and chief executive officer, during a meeting of the Community Improvement Corp. Tuesday. Griffin is a retired AT&T executive and brother of two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin.
He played football at Kent State University not long after the National Guard shootings of 1970, and developed a lifelong friendship with Bright there.
Griffin said changing Bright's house into the Homestead is under way, with the facility to provide conference rooms and executive offices for Brightway Center, as well as some limited youth and leadership programming.
He said the pavilion, expected to open by June, will seat up to 350 in a banquet setting and will be available for fundraising to generate income to continue to develop the ambitious plan for the leadership and youth camp, which he estimated will cost as much as $47 million and will take as long as 15 years to complete, depending on how fundraising and other factors work out.
The long-term plan sees a major sports complex, including a football stadium, an Olympic-sized indoor competition swimming pool, a large community center and auditorium, as well as soccer fields and a manmade 7-acre lake with a concert-capable amphitheater.
Plans also call for up to 400 rooms in cottages scattered throughout the complex for overnight stays for programs and events.
Programming is expected to get under way with the opening of the pavilion in 2011, with heavier construction anticipated by 2013.
The plan is for Brightway Center to use about 35 percent of the property with the rest available for lease to other partners that would help fund ongoing operation of the center.
The center would be available for Christian youth leadership development as well as corporate executive development seminars and retreats, Griffin explained. The group is looking for partners in the area and across the nation, in corporations, individuals and schools or other organizations. The Brightway Center board includes people with statewide contacts, and Griffin said contact has been made with organizations from the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference to the NFL as well as major corporations seeking support and participation.
He said Brightway Center isn't looking to create its own programming or re-create what others are doing so much as to partner with others who already have programs that meet the mission of the center, which is listed on its brochure as "To be a premier ministry facility that influences the world for Christ through athletics, academics and Bible studies."
(Giannamore can be contacted at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)
