Movement started in 2007 to rehabilitate a simple basketball court located on 12th Avenue and 19th Street, very close to downtown Altoona, called the Booker T. Washington Basketball Court. This court was extremely important for the African American community and the 5th Ward in the City of Altoona. The court was extremely run down, with broken backboards, one missing rim, rusted fencing, and major cracks in the court’s surface.

Mike Hofer had his first meeting as the newly-appointed Central Blair Recreation Commission (CBRC) interim director with the president of the Blair County NAACP, Don Witherspoon, to talk about the BTW Court. Don had no idea that earlier in the year Mike Hofer had applied for block grant funding through the City to repair the court. Don was simply coming into Mike’s office to ask for a new rim and nets for the court so the kids could play full court again. When Mike informed Don he had applied for funding to rehabilitate the entire court, Don was beyond thrilled and invited Mike to sit down and meet with him, Alan Robison, the director of the Blair County Community Action Agency, and Randy Feathers, who was working with the Attorney General’s office at the time.

This meeting was where the Booker T Washington Revitalization Corporation was born. As the funding came into place for the rehabilitation of the basketball court, the four decided it would be a great idea to pull in other members from the community who shared the vision to make this court better for the kids. At the end of 2007, about a dozen volunteers were working together to transform this community park that produced three NBA stars over the years. The Booker T. Washington Community Revitalization Project officially launched.

At the completion of phase 1 of the BTW project, Mike Hofer proposed to the committee that we should consider meeting with an attorney and officially turning the BTW committee into a registered 501c3 non-profit organization. In the winter of 2010 the process started, and by the summer of 2011 articles of incorporation and bylaws were drawn up for the group.
In August 2011, the group received the official letter from the IRS granting the newly formed Booker T. Washington Revitalization Corporation (BTW Corp.) exempt from federal income tax under section 501c3 of the internal revenue code.

Why was it so important to register BTW Corp. as a 501c3?

The Central Blair Recreation and Park Commission is made up of the City of Altoona, Logan Township and the Altoona Area School District. CBRC is governed by these three municipalities, making CBRC a government-funded organization. Unfortunately, there are many funding sources that are not eligible to government agencies. With BTW Corp. as a registered 501c3 organization, it could now work as the nonprofit arm of CBRC and help raise funds that would go directly back into the park system here in Central Blair County. Private foundation money and many other grant opportunities became attainable for our community through BTW Corp., as well as personal tax-deductible donations made to the organization.

BTW Corp. is run exclusively by volunteers and there are no salaried positions for the members. 100% of funding is used to rehabilitate parks and recreation spaces in Altoona, PA.

We have successfully worked on 6 parks in the City of Altoona and we are currently working on Veterans Memorial Field.