Cataract Lake Community Center strives to be resource, struggles to get people in the door

The Cataract Lake Community Center reopened about a year and a half ago, with hopes to build trust and offer meaningful resources to the community.

The center offers monthly free community dinners, emergency food assistance and free resources, such as hygiene products, diapers, formula, clothing and mobility aids like crutches and walkers. The building is also open for people to come hang out and play and hosts regular events like ice cream socials and LEGO® nights.

The monthly dinners are held on the third Wednesday of each month from 5-7 p.m., drawing anywhere between 45 and 100 attendees. The center’s board president, Patricia Chappell, said the dinners are a chance for all people to come together for a meal.

One of the center’s greatest impacts, she said, is showing respect. The center opens its doors to “people who are already struggling, who are already in a situation of uncomfortableness, who are being judged, who are being looked down upon, who are leery,” Chappell said.

Focusing on being non-judgmental, the center aims to avoid the stigma or ridicule faced by people who are living in poverty or dealing with addiction.

“I wish people understood that they’re good people,” board vice president Christal Perrine said. “They deserve to have things as well. They deserve food. They deserve kindness. They deserve people to be friendly to them.”

Chappell said the center is important in giving aid to community members in need but is in “desperate” need of food and hygiene donations and involvement. Chappell said she wants to see more people come to the monthly dinners, join as volunteers and tell the center what resources, services or events they want to have.

The center tries to cater to those who may be experiencing homelessness or don’t have the resources to cook in a kitchen by offering food items that can be easily made over an open pit or with boiling water. It also opens up during tornados or extreme warm or cold weather as a place where people can find shelter.

“Last year we stayed open,” Chappell said. “There was about five days where it was extremely cold. My family actually stayed up there for three days straight. We slept on the floor to keep the building open for people to come in and provided coffee and soups and different things in case people were cold.”

Chappell said her goal is to have organizations like the IU Health Owen County Women, Infants and Children office, Division of Family Resources or local health department come to the center and provide outreach and services to the “really underserved area.”

Transportation is a large barrier for some, she said, and some kind of shuttle to take those without their own transportation to the grocery store, a job interview or doctor appointments would help people get on their feet.

“You’d be really surprised how many people don’t have internet,” she said. “They don’t have a home. They’re living in tents in the woods, so they don’t have cars. They don’t have a means to apply (to jobs) or obtain services outside that little bitty area.”

Working with and volunteering for the center has changed the way Chappell thinks about the underserved people in the community, she said. Learning just how many are facing generational poverty, homelessness and addiction was “heartbreaking.”

“There's a lot of children, an enormous amount of children in that area that nobody knows about, that are living in the woods, that are living in tents, that are not going to school, that are hungry, covered in sores,” Chappell said.

Not only does center leadership hope to attract more volunteers, as the most current ones are the seven board members, but also more users of the community building. Chappell said the center has tried some programs that haven’t quite taken off. Perrine said more people are starting to come to the dinners and use the center, but she wants to know what the community wants.

In the future, Perrine said she would like the center to be open at least five days a week. With more volunteers, donations and community members offering resources, programs and events for the center, Chappell hopes the facility will have the stability it needs to be open and stay open more often.

“If we had more resources and more ability to get resources out there, I do believe that people would see a change,” Chappell said of the underserved community.

The nonprofit leases the building from the Jackson Township Trustee in Owen County, who currently covers rent and helps with utility bills. But, in March 2027, the center will fully fund itself and needs donations to last.

Perrine and Chappell both want the community to know that it’s not the same center that’s been open off and on for five to 10 years and broke the community’s trust with a lack of transparency. It has new leadership.

“Our main goal is a community,” Perrine said. “We’re not doing this for us, we’re doing this for the community. We want them to come in. We want them to know that we’re there for them.”

The center is open from 3-7 p.m. on the first and third Sunday of each month, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 4-7 p.m. Fridays, 7-10 a.m. on the first and third Saturday of each month and 4-6 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, according to its website.

The center, located at 5530 State Road 42 in Poland, IN, regularly posts updates and events on its Facebook page.

“I want to see that place full of people,” Perrine said. “I want to see kids in there playing. I want to see seniors in there enjoying coffee, playing cards. I want to see adults socializing, everybody just getting together.”