After a well-publicized “rocky patch” in its history several years ago, the Albany/Clinton County Wellness Center appears now to be a well-used and highly appreciated asset to the county.

Offering local and area residents an affordable facility with modern equipment and features to enhance the healthy lifestyles of those interested, the Wellness Center sees a constant stream of traffic going and coming.

Like any well-used facility, however, there comes a time when equipment must be updated and enhancements are necessary in order to keep services and options modern and attractive to those who use it.

The Wellness Center is no different, and for that reason, board members, employees and other volunteers are planning on holding a fundraising event this week that will help raise funds needed for making those planned improvements and enhancements.

Wellness Center board members Bobby Grant and Jennifer Dyer spent some time Monday morning with the Clinton County News relaying plans for an event slated for later this week that will be a familiar format to many in Clinton County – a radio auction hosted over the airwaves of local radio station WANY.

Slated for this Friday, November 3, the WANY/Wellness Auction will be featured beginning at 6:00 p.m. and will be offering a host of items, services and goods during its airing.

Fashioned similar to the spring event of a similar nature held by the Clinton County High School Basketball Booster Club, this auction will be staged from the Wellness Center lobby.

Being held for the first time to benefit the Wellness Center, both Grant and Dyer said they hoped to make the fundraising effort an annual event held during this same time yearly.

Grant explained Monday that while the facility is currently in good financial condition, having overcome some past problems with funding, there were needs for new equipment, equipment upgrades and even hopes of being able to offer more services to the public using the Wellness Center.

Dyer added that she also hopes to be able to use the fundraising auction as a way to perhaps increase the number of healthy lifestyle related classes, programs and other offerings in the future.

“We’ve never had a fundraiser before and we want to do this yearly and have more funding to help out with new equipment, letting us offer more classes, do more with the pool, training instructors and so on,” Dyer said Monday. “It’s just smart for us to do something like this in order to be able to do more with the Center.”

Grant said that among similar fitness centers in the area, including independent wellness centers such as Clinton County’s as well as YMCA affiliated facilities, the local center was among the least expensive for its residents to be able to use.

“We are the cheapest wellness center anywhere in an eight or nine county area surrounding us,” Grant said. “We don’t charge extra for classes or a lot of things we offer.”

Grant also added that the members of the board of directors were all volunteers who believed in the benefits of the Center to the health and recreation of it’s citizens.

“None of the board members have ever received any monetary considerations for their time and efforts,” Grant said, adding that he was often asked that question from the public. ‘They are all volunteers.”

They both noted that in the recent few months, the Center had made new equipment purchases and had incurred other expenses, and rather than increase membership prices, the board began considering other ways to raise additional funding to help with those and future expenses.

They also pointed out that while the equipment had been well maintained, it was also a given fact that many of the units in the Center, such as treadmills, were beginning to reach what would be considered the end of their useful lives and would need replacing.

Two new treadmills were recently purchased and put on line at the center and the board is expecting to have to continue to make similar purchases and upgrades in order to keep the facility modern and an attractive option for the community to be a part of.

“The Wellness Center doesn’t take in a lot of money, and we just want to be able to raise some additional funding in order to keep some things going,” Grant said.

Grant said that Dyer and several of the other board members and staffers had been working hard on organizing this first radio auction, noting that already a large group of items had been secured to offer for sale during the program.

Dyer said that among the largest items that will be up for auction during Friday’s program will be two houseboat vacations, one from Conley Bottom on Lake Cumberland and another from Sunset Marina on Dale Hollow Lake.

Another unique vacation opportunity that will be offered during the auction will be a stay at the historical Gatlinburg Inn in the Smokey Mountains.

Other items include clothing, jewelry, food and even chances to purchase tickets to University of Kentucky basketball games.

Smaller items include a host of gift cards and certificates for various goods and services from local businesses and professionals who have donated to the Wellness Center Auction in an effort to help boost the success of the fundraiser.

While much of the food related items being sold during Friday’s auction are from local restaurants, there will be a large number of homemade food items offered for sale as well.

Grant told the Clinton County News on Monday that the Wellness Center had been a long-time labor of love in his life since it’s inception over a decade ago when the idea of such a facility had been suggested to him by then County Judge/Executive Donnie McWhorter.

Grant said that after months of planning and applying for grants and other forms of funding, the facility eventually came to be built, originally being affiliated with the YMCA organization.

Eventually, that affiliation was dropped and the facility became an independent wellness center as it continues to operate presently.

Friday’s auction will operate similar to the now long-running Basketball Booster Club radio auction held each spring near the time of the post-season 16th District Tournament.

This first auction for the Wellness Center will even share one of the on-the-air radio hosts that has been with the basketball Booster Auction since it’s inception in the early 1980s.

Al Gibson, who is also the Editor/Publisher of the Clinton County News, will be lending his experience to the auction as one of the hosts during the program.

Gibson will be joined on the program by Mike Beard, who is also familiar with the operation of the radio auction process, having been a long-time member of the athletic department at Clinton County High School.

Beard’s wife, Lisa Beard, is one of the Wellness Center’s Board of Directors and has also played a large part in organizing this effort in its inaugural year.

Friday night’s program will be featured over the airwaves of WANY FM at its radio frequency location of 100.9..

Listeners to the program can call one of two telephone numbers at the Wellness Center, 387-0392 or 387-9622, to place bids on featured items during each segment of the program.

Repeated calls during the segments as the bidding increases will be necessary in order for bidders to stay ahead of the competition and win the desired items or goods.

As is also the case with the Basketball Booster Auction, a live crowd is expected to be on hand at the Wellness Center during the auction as well.

Dyer also noted the possibility of the items being available for viewing on Facebook during the auction, although details of that feature were still being worked out at press time and would be announced or confirmed during Friday night’s auction program.

“It’s a beginning, and whatever we get this time will be a plus to the Center,” Grant said, noting that he and the board were hoping for a successful night and that the program would grow each year going forward. “We hope to carry this on as a tradition every year.”

The timing of this auction also lends itself to be an opportunity to allow listeners to get some Christmas shopping completed, accomplishing two goals with one effort, so to speak – gift buying and supporting a much needed Clinton County facility.

“There is just so many things we can do out there and it’s going to take things like this to be able to do them,” Dyer said. “We got a good start with a lot of businesses and people donating out of the goodness of their hearts for this.”

Friday’s auction is set to begin at 6:00 p.m. and will continued until all of the items have been sold.

Additional details concerning the event as well as details concerning merchandise pick-up and payment details will be announced during Friday night’s programming.

The most important issues to remember are – tune in, bid and buy – and help support the Albany/Clinton County Wellness Center.