The Fellowship Hall at CFC
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The Fellowship Hall is a free-standing building located on the west side of our property. It includes a large hall, large kitchen, a meeting room and handicapped restrooms.
The mission of the hall is to provide space for multi-use purposes including dinners, and children and youth activities. We have portable equipment to play basketball and Foosball. Even though the space is not a full gym it provides space for a wide variety of activities. Outside groups are encouraged to use the hall. We ask these groups to help with our expenses for utilities, cleaning, etc.
The mission of the hall is to provide space for multi-use purposes including dinners, and children and youth activities. We have portable equipment to play basketball and Foosball. Even though the space is not a full gym it provides space for a wide variety of activities. Outside groups are encouraged to use the hall. We ask these groups to help with our expenses for utilities, cleaning, etc.
To reserve the Fellowship Hall for a church or for an outside event, please call the church at 307-864-2524, or email by clicking the button below.
History of the Fellowship Hall
Federated Community Church – Fellowship Hall
We Had a Dream!
For many years there had been continued discussion on how we could improve the Church’s basement kitchen, along with bringing it up to code with ADA accessibility for events and fellowship dinners. This is the story of how our Fellowship Hall came to be –
2006 – The Church was presented with an option from our neighbors at 629 Big Horn Street to purchase their home. They were getting ready to move to the Pioneer Home and wanted to give us advance notice before the home was listed for sale. The Board of Directors felt the price was reasonable and would offer future additional off-street parking for the Church. Until we were ready to make plans for expanding the parking lot, we decided we could rent the home which would generate revenue to pay toward the $43,000 mortgage. We became landlords and rented the house until 2010 when it became too costly to maintain.
2008 – Pastor Chuck Cooper expressed an interest in doing a building addition to the Church that could be used not only for fellowship, but also for youth activities. The Church Board of Directors voted to start a Building Expansion Fund and the Church began receiving donations for this Fund. A building Expansion Committee was also formed with a member from each Church committee to represent the needs of their committee to be included in the building expansion. The members of this Building Expansion Committee were Marilyn Strasuborger, Karen Sinclair, Mike Williams, Ellen Galyan, Becky Mortimore, Mark Mortimore, Virginia Odde, Keith Kerr, Verne Lofink and Veva VanKirk (treasurer and recording secretary).
2009 – After filling the pulpit several time in 2008, Pastor Chuck Cooper began serving as our full-time pastor 1/1/2009. Pastor Cooper owned his own home in Thermopolis and did not require the parsonage for housing.
We began renting the manse in May of 2009 which generated additional funds to be put toward the Building Expansion Fund.
2010 - The house at 629 Big Horn was demolished and ground leveled by Dave Patterson Construction.
2012 – We consulted with an architect in early 2012 (Dennis Richardson, former Thermopolis resident and past member of our Church). This was a very slow process and drawings were changed several times. The Board along with the Expansion Committee agreed that we would need to set a cap of $700,000 for this project and require that at least one-hale of those funds ($350,000) be raised before starting the project.
2013 – Darvin Little at 631 Big Horn Street contacted the Church to see if we would be interested in purchasing his property and the Board and Building Expansion committee felt this would also be a good investment, so we proceeded with this purchase.
On September 13, 2013, we finally had a drawing from the architect that we were ready to present it to the congregation for approval, along with approvals from United Methodist Conference and the Wyoming Presbytery. The result was 90 votes in favor and 6 opposed. The ballot passed by 94% to proceed with the project, first of which included obtaining estimates from contractors. The Church hired Fred Hanson as our Construction Manager to give us an idea of what this process would look like and help us find the best contractors and request bids.
This original “blue-print” for a building expansion (build an addition on to the existing Church building) included:
a new stairway on the West side of the existing Church
an elevator
ADA bathrooms
An additional meeting room which could become a kitchen in the future
ADA parking
2014 – After a lengthy process of obtaining bids for the building expansion, we receiving an estimate of $966,970 the committee and Board decided to take this to the congregation to determine if we should:
The congregation met on April 27, 2014 and voted to scrap our current plan and hope the committee could come up with an affordable plan keeping with our original cap of $700,000.
The building expansion committee met in May 2014 and decided to divide the building expansion project into phases beginning with the much-needed installation of an elevator/lift in the existing Church building to offer ADA accessibility. Along with the lift, we installed a new ADA door (ramp room entry), added sidewalks and an ADA parking area.
The next obstacle we came to with building an addition to the existing Church building was the cost to build a fire wall and install a sprinkler system in the existing Church. We had to also consider the Church’s mechanical and electrical requirements and having to destroy the original brick of our Church.
Now since we already had a qualified contractor on premises installing the elevator/lift, we approached the contractor, Sedmak Construction, for his opinions, thoughts and ideas. The answer to our Prayers was to build an Annex building, separate from the existing Church.
2015 – by December 2015 we had a proposal from Sedmak Construction for $583,500, which was accepted (leaving a cushion to keep under the $700,000 limit we had originally set).
2016 –
June 2016 – State of Wyoming asbestos inspection at 631 Big Horn house, land survey was done, house was demolished, ground work was finalized.
August 21, 2016 – GROUND BREAKING CEREMONY, with Veva VanKirk, as newly appointed “Construction chairperson and contractor point of contact” along with Pastor Cooper
October 2, 2016 – the steel building arrives via semi-tractor/trailer.
2017 -
April 2017 - Ribbon Cutting Ceremony in our new Fellowship Hall along with a potluck meal.
2023
Mortgage paid off due to some generous donations!
We Had a Dream!
For many years there had been continued discussion on how we could improve the Church’s basement kitchen, along with bringing it up to code with ADA accessibility for events and fellowship dinners. This is the story of how our Fellowship Hall came to be –
2006 – The Church was presented with an option from our neighbors at 629 Big Horn Street to purchase their home. They were getting ready to move to the Pioneer Home and wanted to give us advance notice before the home was listed for sale. The Board of Directors felt the price was reasonable and would offer future additional off-street parking for the Church. Until we were ready to make plans for expanding the parking lot, we decided we could rent the home which would generate revenue to pay toward the $43,000 mortgage. We became landlords and rented the house until 2010 when it became too costly to maintain.
2008 – Pastor Chuck Cooper expressed an interest in doing a building addition to the Church that could be used not only for fellowship, but also for youth activities. The Church Board of Directors voted to start a Building Expansion Fund and the Church began receiving donations for this Fund. A building Expansion Committee was also formed with a member from each Church committee to represent the needs of their committee to be included in the building expansion. The members of this Building Expansion Committee were Marilyn Strasuborger, Karen Sinclair, Mike Williams, Ellen Galyan, Becky Mortimore, Mark Mortimore, Virginia Odde, Keith Kerr, Verne Lofink and Veva VanKirk (treasurer and recording secretary).
2009 – After filling the pulpit several time in 2008, Pastor Chuck Cooper began serving as our full-time pastor 1/1/2009. Pastor Cooper owned his own home in Thermopolis and did not require the parsonage for housing.
We began renting the manse in May of 2009 which generated additional funds to be put toward the Building Expansion Fund.
2010 - The house at 629 Big Horn was demolished and ground leveled by Dave Patterson Construction.
2012 – We consulted with an architect in early 2012 (Dennis Richardson, former Thermopolis resident and past member of our Church). This was a very slow process and drawings were changed several times. The Board along with the Expansion Committee agreed that we would need to set a cap of $700,000 for this project and require that at least one-hale of those funds ($350,000) be raised before starting the project.
2013 – Darvin Little at 631 Big Horn Street contacted the Church to see if we would be interested in purchasing his property and the Board and Building Expansion committee felt this would also be a good investment, so we proceeded with this purchase.
On September 13, 2013, we finally had a drawing from the architect that we were ready to present it to the congregation for approval, along with approvals from United Methodist Conference and the Wyoming Presbytery. The result was 90 votes in favor and 6 opposed. The ballot passed by 94% to proceed with the project, first of which included obtaining estimates from contractors. The Church hired Fred Hanson as our Construction Manager to give us an idea of what this process would look like and help us find the best contractors and request bids.
This original “blue-print” for a building expansion (build an addition on to the existing Church building) included:
a new stairway on the West side of the existing Church
an elevator
ADA bathrooms
An additional meeting room which could become a kitchen in the future
ADA parking
2014 – After a lengthy process of obtaining bids for the building expansion, we receiving an estimate of $966,970 the committee and Board decided to take this to the congregation to determine if we should:
- Proceed
- Do nothing at this time
- Look for another alternative
The congregation met on April 27, 2014 and voted to scrap our current plan and hope the committee could come up with an affordable plan keeping with our original cap of $700,000.
The building expansion committee met in May 2014 and decided to divide the building expansion project into phases beginning with the much-needed installation of an elevator/lift in the existing Church building to offer ADA accessibility. Along with the lift, we installed a new ADA door (ramp room entry), added sidewalks and an ADA parking area.
The next obstacle we came to with building an addition to the existing Church building was the cost to build a fire wall and install a sprinkler system in the existing Church. We had to also consider the Church’s mechanical and electrical requirements and having to destroy the original brick of our Church.
Now since we already had a qualified contractor on premises installing the elevator/lift, we approached the contractor, Sedmak Construction, for his opinions, thoughts and ideas. The answer to our Prayers was to build an Annex building, separate from the existing Church.
2015 – by December 2015 we had a proposal from Sedmak Construction for $583,500, which was accepted (leaving a cushion to keep under the $700,000 limit we had originally set).
2016 –
June 2016 – State of Wyoming asbestos inspection at 631 Big Horn house, land survey was done, house was demolished, ground work was finalized.
August 21, 2016 – GROUND BREAKING CEREMONY, with Veva VanKirk, as newly appointed “Construction chairperson and contractor point of contact” along with Pastor Cooper
October 2, 2016 – the steel building arrives via semi-tractor/trailer.
2017 -
April 2017 - Ribbon Cutting Ceremony in our new Fellowship Hall along with a potluck meal.
2023
Mortgage paid off due to some generous donations!