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The Wesley Community Center brings its services to the south side By Jonathan Baker
f you live on Amarillo’s south side, you may not have heard of the Wesley Community Center – but odds are you’ve seen the effects of the center’s work. That’s because a city, like an organism, is only truly healthy when the entire entity is being cared for. For the past several decades, the Wesley has performed nearly every service you can dream up for folks in Amarillo’s Barrio Neighborhood – and residents of the Barrio will tell you, with a great deal of pride, that this is their community center. The Wesley keeps kids off the streets and teaches them new skills, serves the east side’s elderly population in myriad ways, and helps new Americans learn the language and assimilate into society. And, like a beating heart, the Wesley spreads kindness into the neighboring regions, keeping our city healthy in ways large and small. This year, the Amarillo Wesley Community Center will celebrate its 70th year of existence. And now, through a bit of good luck (the kind that falls into the laps of people who’ve been acting with grace and integrity for decades), the Wesley has plans to open a new location in south Amarillo. The Wesley has shown us, beyond our wildest dreams, how vital a community center can be, and the rest of our city has much to learn from this stalwart organization. Here’s to 70 more years!
A Crash Course in Service
Over the past seven decades, the Wesley Community Center has served everyone from children and youth to families and senior
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AMARILLO.COM/AMARILLO-MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2021
citizens. “We serve people from all walks of life,” says Director Liz Rascón-Alaniz, “from as early as 6 weeks old, all the way to senior citizens who are 99 years of age.” The Center was founded in 1951 by Maria Fields, a native of Argentina who’d moved to Amarillo’s Barrio and soon felt a need to start programs and projects in the neighborhood. Fields teamed up with Polk Street United Methodist Church and a few local United Methodist women, and together they raised the money to build the original Wesley Community Center, which was located just a couple of blocks down the street from the Wesley’s current location at 1615 S. Roberts St. In those early days, Mrs. Fields and her staff of volunteers began providing sewing classes, arts and crafts and athletic activities for youth, English as a Second Language classes, and daycare services to Amarillo’s underserved Hispanic community. That original Wesley Center continued to grow for 30 years, until the current location was built under the leadership of Reverend Jacinto Alderete, who served as leader of the center for 32 years. Alderete was followed as executive director by Belinda Gonzalez Taylor, who served for 15 years, until Liz Rascón-Alaniz took the reins 10 years ago.
Get with the Program
“One of the special things about the Wesley is, we identify the need in our community and then we build programs and projects around that need,” Rascón-Alaniz explains.
