Gray Leading CCCC Activities

The Cheyenne County Community Center has always been a hub of activities and events for the area community, and has an “ambassador” that will brighten your day while helping you discover all the Center has to offer.

Tara Gray started as Activities Director back in November, but she's not new to the area or the Community Center. She was working part-time in the evenings at the Community Center, and when Kirsten Richards left the Center to open Beans & Steams, she was offered the position as Activities Director.

“I was here pretty much three times a day anyways, so it made sense just to work here full time,” Gray said with a laugh.

Gray was born in Chappell and soon moved to Sidney and graduated from Sidney High School in 1990. She has a son who graduated from Sidney High School in 2014. Gray has done much work with Meals On Wheels and, as a former foster child herself, with the CASA organization.

She's a retired Marine that was stationed in Hawaii, then lived in Hawaii for a few years after her service prior to returning to Sidney. She is focused on creating new events and activities and fresh ways of engaging the school and business communities in the Sidney area.

Always eager to explore new options and activities to benefit the Sidney community, Gray engages all of the visitors and members of the Community Center in a positive and welcoming way. Gray is focused on providing great new programs and making the Community Center the hub of activity in Sidney and Cheyenne County.

“We are focused on having at least one trip a month to Denver to take in a show or a game, or to South Dakota for casino trips and anything else the community is open to and would like explore,” she said. She stresses the importance of engagement on Facebook, which she reaches nearly 7,000 people a month for the Community Center.

“We have trips going full-force, we have the Vendor Fair coming up on December 4, and we had a Spring Vendor Fair in conjunction with Girls Night Out, which we plan on doing again next year.” She also stresses that a big focus of her position is to be in contact with people who have interest in the Center, and to show them how easy it is to get involved and inform them on all of the great programs that are offered. Besides annual memberships, the Center offers monthly plans, day passes and per-class passes at very reasonable rates.

“It took me 50 years to be a cheerleader, but look at me now,” she says with a laugh. “Whatever your goal is, we can help with it, and I'm very excited about helping our members get all that we have to offer.”

Besides making sure the Center is a fun place to be, Gray is also focused on programs that help the community.

“With the help of Forrest Hershberger, (publisher of the Sun-Telegraph) we were able to team up to get athletic shoes donated from Cabela's and the community. Especially for kids with sports, the shoes can be expensive, and I'll be damned if the lack of a pair of proper athletic shoes are going to keep your child out of sports,” she said. The Center has a display with all kinds of shoes for the taking and will take requests for specific types or sizes of shoes for anyone in need.

“Everybody complains about kids stuck behind a computer screen or TV, so let's get them out on the field,” she said.

For more information or to find out about the programs the Community Center has to offer, you can stop in and speak with Tara or go to the Community Center's website at http://www.ccccsidney.com or on Facebook at Cheyenne County Community Center.