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Orr Center comes to life

This weekend’s Homesteading & Lifestyle Expo will be facility’s first big event

Fred Schumacher
Posted 8/17/16

ORR - The Orr Center’s Homesteading & Lifestyle Expo, set for Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 20 and 21, will showcase the transformation taking place at the former Orr School as it becomes a center for …

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Orr Center comes to life

This weekend’s Homesteading & Lifestyle Expo will be facility’s first big event

Posted

ORR - The Orr Center’s Homesteading & Lifestyle Expo, set for Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 20 and 21, will showcase the transformation taking place at the former Orr School as it becomes a center for sustainability and healthy living in the north woods.

The Expo, which will take place at the Orr Center in downtown Orr on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., features exhibits and workshops focusing on ways to be self-reliant and live gently with the earth and its resources.

This first big event at the Orr Center will also give the public a chance to see the how the grand vision that members of the Orr community have for the center is unfolding. The organization’s vision statement states that the Orr Center is to become a “vibrant campus and resource center for community living, youth development, and economic opportunities.”

The Orr Center came into being after a long period of planning and strategizing for how to address the loss of the school, which closed in 2011 and resulted in the predictable shock to any community that loses the linchpin that a public school provides in a small community. Former Orr City Clerk Louise Redmond before her untimely death in spring of 2015 was instrumental in the original visioning for a project for the school as part of the local strategic planning process to promote economic and community development.

The City of Orr purchased the school for $7,001 from the St. Louis County School District when it was on the verge of being bought by a private individual. The city exercised its right of first refusal on the building’s sale, paying just $1 more than the other offer.

In September 2015, the nonprofit Orr Center bought the school on a contract for deed for $15,000. Since that time there has been a tremendous outpouring of community support and volunteerism to restore, preserve, and repurpose the building.

“We believe the Orr Center can be a beacon for a community that’s going through the same thing as we did in losing our school,” said Wendy Purdy, Orr Center board president. “Our experience shows that any community has the resources that could be used to create some new life into their old school building and community.”

When the Orr Center took possession of the building, it had suffered from being shuttered and unheated for several years. The building was “in disarray,” Purdy said, with extensive damage from standing unused and unheated, including musty odors, exposed lead paint, and problems with asbestos caused by moisture infiltrating into spaces throughout the building from broken drain pipes on the roof. There was flooding in the basement and “dump truck loads” of garbage that had to be sorted and salvaged or discarded.

“It was an overwhelming task,” said Purdy. “But we are taking it one step at a time.”

In a little over a year and a half, the Orr Center has been able to pay off the original cost of the building and has raised a total of more than $700,000 in cash donations, grants, and in-kind donations of time, materials, and engineering support.

Purdy said the volunteerism from members of the community and the region has been amazing. “People have come forward with resources, skills, time, and knowledge, and there’s no way this could have happened without that support.”

Major projects have included the removal of the old coal boilers, the construction of a new building for four new Garn high efficiency biomass gasification boilers, and the installation of the new heating system into the old school building; removal of asbestos and abatement of lead; troubleshooting and repair of the 68,000 square foot building’s water systems; and removal of the hardwood gym floor, which is being salvaged by a company at no cost to the Orr Center and which will be repurposed by the new owner—an example of the sustainable principles at the heart of the Orr Center’s mission.

Luckily the complete commercial kitchen was left largely intact, so the kitchen facilities will be operational for serving meals to large and small groups, Purdy said.

General cleaning and updating has been completed in time for the Expo, with floors, walls, and windows shining and freshened.

The large gym will be converted into a recreational center with a bowling alley, zip lines, rock climbing walls, laser tag area, and an arcade. Engineering for the gym project was donated by students and faculty of the Iron Range Engineering Program, a cooperative project between Mesabi Range College, Itasca Community College, and Minnesota State University- Mankato. Thirty students and four instructors spent an entire semester to complete the design.

Many of the contractors who’ve been working in the building went “above and beyond to make this process work,” Purdy said. Help has come just at the right time, often from unexpected places.

“I was just sitting down with a phone number to call someone to rent chairs for the Expo,” Purdy said, “when I got a call from Jody Refsdal of the Cook Lions Club.” Refsdal ask if the Orr Center could use a donation of 180 chairs from an individual who had contacted the Lions Club.

“It seems like we need something and ‘poof,’ it’s there,” Purdy exclaimed. “Apparently this was meant to happen.”

Orr Mayor Joel Astleford also emphasized the tremendous support of the community to make the project a reality. “I can’t say enough about the volunteers,” he said. “The community has really come together. It’s been 100% volunteer, and I also can’t say enough about the outside people who’ve donated to it,” including a family who gave the money to pay off the initial purchase cost of the building.

“In the long run, our hope is to bring jobs to Orr, Minnesota,” said Astleford, referring to the employment that is expected to come with the summer camp and related enterprises as well as from the Center’s role in providing markets for local businesses in support of Center programs.

The restoration of the building will lead to extensive remodeling to repurpose the building as the first sustainability-focused children’s camp. The camp will provide “the best in north woods living,” said Purdy, with the usual array of summer camp outdoor activities, plus educational and fun activities that demonstrate the importance of taking care of the environment and living with respect for the earth.

Year-round programs in the works are a public recreation center; after-school and youth development programs; an aquaponics program that combines fish and vegetable farming; and a wide range of educational programs focusing on sustainability and health lifestyles.

Dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, ready for anything, whether it’s buffing floors or writing grants, Purdy looked forward early in the week to this weekend’s Expo. The overall goal of this first annual event, she said, is to, “bring people together to learn about sustainability and share ideas and start to build community consciousness in our community for how we can live more in tune with the land and our environment.” With over 50 exhibitors and vendors and continuous workshops throughout the two day-event, it should be a weekend filled with learning and enjoyment.