New Rehoboth gym opens to rave reviews

Alumni, staff, students, and others file into the new Rehoboth Sports and Fitness Center Gym during its dedication on Saturday morning. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

Rehoboth Christian School Board Members Joanne Hoylan-Terry and Loreta Ann Miller untie a ribbon dedicating the new Rehoboth Sports and Fitness Center on Saturday morning. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

REHOBOTH — Two men shared the spotlight during Saturday’s dedication ceremony for Rehoboth Christian School’s new Sports and Fitness Center.

One was Keith Kuipers, Rehoboth’s legendary basketball coach who led the school to its first state championship in 1977 and had the school’s first gymnasium named in his honor. The other was Richard DeVos, the co-founder of the Amway Corporation, author, public speaker, and well-known philanthropist, who made the construction of the new center possible. With similar friendly personalities and wry wit, Kuipers and DeVos proved to be entertaining speakers for the dedication event.

More than 600 people turned out to say good-bye to the cramped 1950 gym and to tour the new 43,000 square foot Sports and Fitness Center. The new center features a NBA-sized main gym with seating for 1,200 people, a second multi-purpose gym, a fitness center with a spectacular scenic view, a spacious lobby, concession stand, band room, classroom, and office space.

The ceremony began in the old gym, where Kuipers and Myron Postma, the school’s athletic director, shared a few comments before asking students and alumni to help carry championship banners and athletic trophies from the old facility to the new. Kuipers fondly reminisced about the old gym, which will now be used for PE classes and sports practices. The building’s low ceiling has worked to the advantage of the school’s volleyball teams, he recalled with amusement, and its once wavy floor was a tricky opponent to the visiting basketball players who didn’t know how to play on its unpredictable surface.

But before a banner or trophy made it out the door, a former Rehoboth basketball player got Kuipers to tell a couple of amusing basketball stories, including one about an exciting battle with Tohatchi. The game was tied in the last seconds of the game, explained Kuipers, when officials in the game allowed him a questionable time-out, causing Rehoboth to win the game. Kuipers was standing between the officials and irate Tohatchi fans, when one of those fans took matters into her own hands.

“I got whacked on the side of the head with a purse,” recalled Kuipers of the incident, which he said went on to make headlines in the Gallup Independent.

At the new facility, officials had a “ribbon untying” ceremony rather than a ribbon cutting ceremony.

“We’re not going to cut it, we’re going to open it,” announced Assistant Superintendent Carol Bremer-Bennett. “It is a gift to all of us.”

Rehoboth Executive Director Ron Polinder served as emcee for the ceremony in the new facility. “Why not start out the gym with a cheer,” said Polinder, who then led the crowd in a rousing send-off for the members of the school’s volleyball team who were waiting to board the bus for competition in Española.

The ceremony featured a number of prayers, songs, and remarks by various speakers who offered memories
of the old gymnasium and hopes for the new facility.

“We’ve been to a lot of dedications in our life,” said keynote speaker DeVos, “but none any better than this.”

DeVos, who was accompanied by Helen, his wife of 54 years, credited her for the couple’s lifelong practice of philanthropy. When the couple married, he said, their income was $150 a week. Helen insisted they follow the biblical practice of tithing 10 percent of their income to religious and charitable organizations, so $15 went into an envelope each week for giving. As their business and income grew, they were able to give away more and more.

“The envelope always seemed to have money in it,” he said, and as the years went by the couple continued their “little bit of giving,” he added. The DeVos family now owns the Orlando Magic NBA basketball franchise, and the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation has supported a number of hospitals, colleges and universities, and arts organizations.

The foundation provided the lead gift of $5 million to kick-off Rehoboth’s $10 million “Body, Mind and Spirit” capital campaign that was launched to construct the school’s new track and field stadium and the new sports and fitness center.

According to Polinder, the school has since raised another $1 million and is in the process of working with a few other foundations for substantial gifts. The campaign includes an endowment fund to cover the cost of maintaining the facilities.

Over the weekend, DeVos offered a $500,000 matching gift to the school. For every dollar the local community contributes to the fund, the DeVos Foundation will match that amount up to $500,000.

“Be a cheerleader for each other,” he concluded. “For everyone you meet.”