The Ben Lomond Community Center has a new name.
Back in October, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors voted to rename the building the Pat White Community Center, after local activist Pat White, according to a county release.
More on Pat White, from a Prince William County release:
People say Pat White was a woman who knew how to get things done. One of the things she wanted done in the early 1970s was to turn the old Sudley Barn, at 10501 Copeland Drive in Manassas, into a community center. As president of the Westgate Women’s Club, White led the effort to organize the “Save the Barn” campaign with the goal of saving the historic dairy barn and turning it into a community center.
A newspaper article from the Manassas Journal Messenger, written in 1971, stated that the three acres of prime real estate where the barn sat was slated for town houses. White, who saw the barn as a place where “young people could gather and meet” organized a weekend petition drive, which gathered more than 2,000 signatures. The signatures persuaded the then Prince William Board of County Supervisors to call for a feasibility study to save the structure and turn it into a community gathering place.
When the barn proved to be structurally unsalvageable, White led the voters to approve a $300,000 bond referendum to build a new Ben Lomond Community Center. The community center opened in 1974.
Pat White held dozens of positions on various local and statewide committees and boards between 1971 and 1999. Among other things, Pat White was a member of the Prince William Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors, a news reporter for WPRW – a local AM radio station, a reporter and editor of several community newsletters and a contributing columnist for the now defunct Potomac News. Pat White also served many years as a member of the Prince William Chapter of the American Red Cross and as an aide to State Senator Charles J. Colgan. She was also chairman of the Prince William Electoral Board.
During the recent renaming ceremony, several members of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors had kind words to say about White.
“Prince William County would not be this wonderful place if it weren’t for the hard work of such people like Pat White. Time will not forget her because now we have the opportunity to name this building after her to commemorate the work that she’s done. Pat White is a testament to what one dedicated individual can do for a community. Her passion and commitment to the Manassas area resulted in a community center that has been a valuable resource for the area for over 40 years,” stated Supervisor Pete Candland in a release.
White’s husband, Don White – who was a former supervisor for Gainesville – also spoke at the renaming ceremony.
