Stockert Youth & Community Center

A history of the Stockert Youth and Community Center

(updated April 28, 2025)

Joyce Stockert, a longtime Buckhannon resident, died on March 16, 1994, bequeathed most of her estate to establish a youth center for the children of our community.

The Upshur County Commission operated our youth center for about the first 10 years, and the City of Buckhannon has owned and managed it since at the former East Main Street School, located between City Hall and our Public Safety Complex.

For many years, there was an effort to build a new, full-sized, multi-use space that would be at least as big as a full-sized gymnasium. In December 2017, a capital campaign was launched, revitalizing an effort that had been dormant for years. About $480,000 was realized in gifts and pledges toward constructing the new facility immediately adjacent to the existing Stockert Youth and Community Center. Our most substantial financial supporters included Citizens Bank, Jenkins Ford, and Jenkins Subaru-Hyundai (collectively Jenkins Automotive), Buckhannon Toyota, the Minsker family, Mike Ross, Tim Critchfield, and Weyerhaeuser. Several other donors contributed significantly, but most of our gifts were more modest in amount.

Due to changes in funding models and concerns about the growing construction cost, the Buckhannon City Council voted to cease its efforts to build a new multipurpose building/gym for the Stockert Youth and Community Center during its November 8, 2024, meeting.

Since then, the youth center’s board has been looking at (and implementing) a series of improvements to the building, including new bleachers. Some of our original donors have agreed to move their donations to these projects rather than take a return of their funding.

The many diverse activities occurring at SYCC every day are amazing. On average, 13,000 youth hours are realized monthly at Stockert, and 1,000 volunteer hours are invested monthly. After-school programs provide safety for many of our kids during the school year. Children receive tutoring to assist them with their studies, but they also receive a snack and can play on the playground or watch television while supervised by adults. During the summer, Stockert hosts Camp Buccaneer, and our children participate in various educational and recreational activities while being bused to the high school swimming pool several times weekly.

Stockert hosts basketball, martial arts, Zumba, and wrestling, and serves as a primary sign-up venue for virtually all things kids—youth Soccer, Little League, Pop Warner football, cheerleading, and the list goes on and on. The award-winning drill team, which was Stockert’s very first program, features about a hundred participants who proudly appear in parades throughout our region. SYCC is available for birthday parties, baby and bridal showers. There truly is something for everyone at Stockert!

The City has invested in restoring a small fleet of buses to bring kids to SYCC after school, transporting them in parades, on field trips, and transporting Camp Buccaneer attendees to the pool during summer.

We would like to think that Joyce Stockert would be pleased with how SYCC has grown and evolved during its many years of operation to benefit our children, but our facility doesn’t stop there. In 2018, the City approved the name change to Stockert Youth and Community Center to expand the mission of SYCC to provide space for adult programs, such as the adult basketball leagues, and senior citizen programs.

Thank you so much for supporting our mission, on behalf of everyone associated with our Stockert Youth and Community Center and the City of Buckhannon.