The Jefferson Community School Center received a $2,500 grant from the Alabama Gamefowl Breeders Association on Monday.

The center was incorporated in January 1978. It has been in use since 1925, when it was affiliated with the Marengo County Schools System until 1973.

The committee that oversees the center also heard that a member of AGBA will donate 50 gallons of paint to help renovate the center.

“This will go towards building the structure,” said Virginia Norman of the Jefferson Community School Center committee. “The building is falling in in some places. We’ve done some temporary work so people can continue to have repasts here after funerals. We’ve also had weddings and receptions here. This is for the people in this area who cannot get to the Demopolis Civic Center or other places.”

A lot of the planned restructuring involves the walls and flooring, which have weakened over time.

“We participate in our communities, and we just wanted to help out,” said AGBA secretary D’Renda Lewis. “There are several things that we do. Sometimes, like this, when we see a need, we just come in together and do a fund-raiser and raise some money to help people out.”

Lewis said the AGBA raised money to help Enterprise after a tornado damaged the high school and much of the town in 2007.

“We give a scholarship every year to Auburn for the poultry science department,” Lewis said. “We also do a research grant to the biology department at Auburn to help them research poultry diseases.

“We’ve been told that they’ve developed an egg-injected vaccine for avian influenza (bird flu).”

The money will go a long way towards improving the Center.

“We need to get some wiring in the room that has been set aside for the computers,” said Alex J. Robertson.

“We’ll need to get a phone line and some software, too.”

Roberson added that the Center also hosted a food service for school-age kids from the end of school to the middle of July. The health department gave the Center a perfect 100 rating for that.

State Sen. Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) of Marengo County’s 24th District was on hand for the presentation.

“I think this is a worthwhile measure to be able to give to this community,” Singleton said. “I have helped by giving this community computers for the center and other things to help them keep up their summer programs. They do a great reading and after-school tutorial program here.”

The grant provided by the AGBA will help preserve the Jefferson Community School Center to make it a building that will truly serve the Jefferson community.