On Friday afternoon, Kelly Taylor stepped into her new office at the Sterling Community Center. The wife and mother of one, dressed in a Loudoun County Parks and Recreation T-shirt, track pants and rose-colored horn-rimmed glasses, said she looks forward to making the community center Sterling residents’ second home.
Some of Taylor’s best childhood memories stem from the Falls Church Community Center in Falls Church, where she went to preschool and attended gymnastics classes.
"That’s where I did everything as a child," she said. "Egg hunts, trick or treating, my first gymnastics class."
When community-oriented Taylor went off to college, she studied human services.
"I didn’t know where I would end up," she said, "but I never forgot the way it felt to work with my community."
After Taylor received her master’s degree in human services, she returned to Northern Virginia to work for the McLean Community Center’s teen center. While working there, she met her husband, Dave Taylor.
After the wedding, Taylor moved to Sterling and gave birth to her daughter, Cydney.
She transferred to Loudoun County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Service, and for the past three years, has worked for the department’s summer and school-year camp programs. In April 2005, she was promoted to CASA (County After School Activities) coordinator.
"I loved working with people, but I prefer face-to-face contact," she said. "CASA was a lot of over-the-phone stuff."
WHEN FORMER STERLING Community Center director Sky Dantinne transferred to the new Claude Moore Recreation Center last month, Taylor applied for the job. "Working at a community center is definitely where my passion is," she said.
Dantinne led the Sterling Community Center for nine and a half years. The best part of the job, he said, is the people that work there and live in the community. The Sterling Community Center is committed to the people it serves, he said.
"The Sterling Community Center is made up of a lot of really great people."
STERLING COMMUNITY CENTER assistant manager Carrie Randolph worked with Taylor at Parks and Recreation’s Leesburg office three years ago.
Randolph described Taylor as having a bubbly personality.
"She’s extremely open-minded and creative," she said.
Randolph said she looks forward to Taylor’s presence at the community center and hopes her innovative attitude rubs off on the Sterling community.
"She’s like a breath of fresh air," she said.
For several weeks, Taylor and Randolph have been busy making plans for local teens.
The community leaders are in the midst of creating a teen council, where some of Sterling's youngest residents can voice their opinions about programs offered there.
"We want to hear what they have to say," Taylor said, "about how they want to spend their time here."
The center staff hopes to offer teens the opportunity to get off the streets and try something new.
"We want to plant the seed," Taylor said.
In addition to teen programs, Taylor said the center will continue to offer residents community service opportunities and a safe space along the boulevard.
"The Sterling Community Center’s committed to making sure space is available for people who need it," she said.
TAYLOR SAID her main goal is to "keep a good thing going."
"We want to meet the needs of the community," she said. "If that means offering English classes, Spanish classes, programs for seniors, programs for teens, whatever it is, I’m open. We’ll do it," Taylor said. "I want to make this community center the hub of Sterling."