DATE: Friday, July 25, 1997                 TAG: 9707250693

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   50 lines

FAIRLAWN'S EXPANSION CHEERS ITS SUPPORTERS

A grin crept across Brittany Downs' face and her eyes danced when she thought about the fun she's going to have at the expanded Fairlawn Recreation Center.

The 8-year-old Fairlawn Elementary School third-grader was one of a dozen students who gave officials and community leaders a little help Thursday breaking ground for the building project.

By fall 1998, a 16,000-square-foot center will stand where the kids lifted big chunks of sod.

When completed, the center will include a larger gymnasium with seating for 600, an arts and crafts area, a game room, meeting rooms and a kitchenette. The present center is only 2,000 square feet.

Ceremonies were dampened by a morning drizzle that threatened to turn quickly into a downpour, but spirits remained high.

The expansion of the facility came about in large part because community leaders lobbied long and hard. Three civic leagues, an athletic association, the school and others were active in pushing the project.

Helen Robinson, president of the Hollywood Homes/Maple Hall Civic League, was ecstatic at Thursday's celebration.

``It's for the children and the future,'' she said. ``It will help build leaders for city, state and country.''

City Council approved $1.7 million for the expansion, which was first proposed three years ago.

Peter O'Halloran, director of facility maintenance at the center, just couldn't help letting his happiness infect his voice.

The present center, is ``incredibly crowded, busting at the walls,'' he said.

Dennis Young, director of the Fairlawn center, also was elated.

He said that the club how outgrown the space. The center boasts one of the largest basketball leagues in the city.

Stanley Stein, director of Norfolk's parks and recreation department, joined other officials in donning a white hard hat before speaking to the crowd.

``This is a real demonstration by the community that they want to build strong minds and bodies,'' he said.

Much of the work at the center is done by volunteers. ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot

Dennis Young, director of Fairlawn Recreation Center in Norfolk,

raises his shovel, which holds a piece of sod, as he and others

celebrate a ground-breaking ceremony for a new center Thursday. The

new building will be about eight times larger than the existing one.

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