Pair of NNY Community Foundation Grants helps transform Double Play Community Center

Published on May 06, 2024

Dan Myers, founder of Double Play fitness at the former Ridgeview Lodge, undergoing a total transformation into the fitness organization’s new headquarters for community events and programs on NY-12 near Lowville in Lewis County on April 24, 2023. © Kara Dry Photography LLC

LOWVILLE- A pair of Community Foundation grants totaling $150,000 have helped Double Play Community Center transform a former Lowville restaurant and banquet facility off Bardo Road into a full-service community hub that offers comprehensive wellness programs for patrons of all ages.

The Foundation’s Board of Directors in 2023 approved a $100,000 grant to support Double Play’s capital project and a $50,000 grant to build the nonprofit’s endowment fund at the Community Foundation.

“We are beyond grateful for the generous support and continued confidence in our organization to make a difference in people’s lives in the North Country,” said Double Play Community Center Executive Director Dan Meyers.

“The recent Community Foundation grant award will transform our area in ways never before thought of in Lewis County and the surrounding communities.”

For more than a decade, Double Play, a longtime Community Foundation partner, has been an all encompassing health and wellness organization focused on improving the quality of life for Lewis County residents and surrounding communities.

Its programs center on enrichment, education, recreation, and social activities for children, teens, seniors, and families.

With a grassroots vision, gradual growth, and through evolution, Double Play has become very similar to a regional YMCA.

Until now, Double Play has occupied three spaces in the Village of Lowville to operate an array of programs. In recent years, it has worked to bring all programming to one location.

That goal came to fruition in late 2022 when the organization finalized purchase of the former Ridge View Inn, which opens Tuesday as Double Play’s new permanent home.

Image by Kara Dry Photography/For the Community Foundation. CAPTION: Dan Myers, executive director of Lowville’s Double Play Community Center sits in the property in 2023 that has become the center’s new home. The Community Foundation awarded Double Play a pair of grants to help redevelop the former restaurant and banquet facility on Bardo Road that consolidates all the organization’s programs onto a single campus.