Morley Community Center

Morley Community Center

Hero Story
Morley Community Center

The Morley Community Center Board of Directors works tirelessly to develop this fledgling hub of community activity. Using a once boarded up elementary school as their base, this group of committed citizens has maintained, improved and revived this property to become a vital community resource in Morley, MI.

Morley is a very rural community with just over 500 residents within village limits; however, the Center serves as a hub of activity for socialization and support resources for all in the surrounding area. Activities held by the Center have included open gym, pickle ball, blood drives, senior exercise classes, fund raisers, musical events, and open-air markets. Community residents and groups are able to use the Center as a meeting space, and the gymnasium has served as space for athletic teams to practice, homeschooling groups to provide group physical activities, and more.

During the onset of the pandemic, this group collaborated with the local school district to serve as a pick-up point for families to receive food. As the district geography is vast, families already experiencing crisis found a small reprieve from having to travel far to receive food. When not constrained by health orders, the Center serves as a source of recreation and community enrichment to community members with open gym hours, community open-air markets, ice skating, historical archives with a veterans’ memorial display available for all to see, and many other offerings. Commemorative services to honor veterans have been held on the Center’s lawn, among other community celebrations, keeping what could be an obsolete building a gathering point where residents can gather and enjoy being part of this quaint community.

The Center was conceptualized by 81-year-old Gordon Galloway and brought to fruition by the arduous work of the board. Many of the board members are retirees who find their efforts making a difference not just for themselves but for the community during a time where connection and purpose have been hard to come by.