Having the Center for Arts and Culture is fun to talk about because there’s some pretty cool features, but what’s most exciting is the community that can come together. Hello, I’m Scott Miller, the chief marketing officer at Garden Spark Communities, and I’m Juanita Fox, the storyteller. In this season of purpose and retirement, we’ll be talking with people whose stories appeared in the articles published in the fall 2026 issue of Destination Gardens Spark Communities magazine.
Today, we are excited to host Sally Mittelstadt, a Garden Spot Village resident. Sally leads the Spark Committee for Time to Shine, the campaign for the Center for Arts and Culture. Sally. So when and how did you realize that leading the Spark Committee was a life giving opportunity for you? Last fall, a friend visited me who shared a verse out of Proverbs that talked about, don’t spend too much time looking back on your life, but live in the now with what you can do in the joy of the Lord.
Wendy had been drawing me into the conversation about the center for Arts and Culture over the previous few months, and in January, she asked me to consider being the chairman for the Campaign Communications Committee. I thought about it, prayed about it, and in January of every year, I evaluate what my priorities will be for the coming year. I could see God nudging me to rearrange my priorities.
You know how much I enjoy sewing. Well, that dropped to number four and I said yes and stepped in to chairing the campaign communications committee and promptly knew that was too long a name for me to say every time. And so, in collaboration with the trellis work staff, including Anne Shannon Esbenshade, we decided with the theme Time to Shine.
We needed to spark something that was going to shine. And so we called ourselves the Spark Committee with Spark Gatherings and even created a sticker that would be a handout encouraging residents to spark the conversation across the community. So what does a typical spark gathering look like? What would residents experience, see and hear when they’re there? First of all, it’s a gathering of 6 to 8 people in a private home.
And so it’s very informal and comfortable. And we, there’s a half hour presentation that includes a video with Steve Lindsay articulating what the purpose of this is and what might be able to happen there. And then the presenter goes on to talk about what the facility is planned to be, where it’s located, and then how it could possibly be used for another year.
A background in school administration and development. And I’m just curious, like, how does that experience shape the way that you talk about the campaign? First of all, I’m comfortable with the vocabulary. So learning a required minimum distribution in some of those kinds of words were not new to me. But the other part, as a school administrator, you are articulating a vision you’re called on to do public speaking.
A lot of times, and you’re building a sense of belonging and inspiration in the participation of the whatever’s going on. And so that has been very comfortable for me. The other piece of my background is cross-cultural communication. I’ve been trained in that. So I’m very aware of audience and how to customize a presentation for an audience. So this is the first major capital campaign for Garden Spot Communities.
What does it feel like to be managing something that doesn’t have a subscribed playbook? A great part of working with this is a great team, professional team where I am the volunteer. So it’s not all on my shoulders. And Wendy Nagel, our chief mission advancement officer, is very skilled in doing fundraising and knowing how to make it comfortable for people.
We also have are working with consultants who know Lancaster County well and have held to other organizations. Nonprofits in Lancaster County raise money. So with their guidance, I didn’t have to come up with everything all by myself. And that was really helpful, but then very exciting to set residents at ease.
Because this isn’t a back pocket, last minute initiative. It’s well thought out and with the guidance of professionals, residents can be involved in participating out of their resources in a way that they may never have dreamed of before. You know, one of the things when you do something like this, you have to completely believe in it, right? And when we hear you talk like we know that you are like, you’re just you’re so committed to it.
But so, like, what part of the vision for the Center and Arts for Culture, what excites you most is like the theater, the sculpture gardens, like something else. Like, what is it that what speaks to me is what can happen inside the building is fun to talk about because there’s some pretty cool features. But what’s most exciting is the community that can come together.
Are the residents of Garden Spot Village often stand alone in relationships in our own community and connectedness. But this is for all of eastern Lancaster County. So the intergenerational component of connection with residents of eastern Lancaster County, New Holland, Honey Brook, Leela, Blue Ball, all of that, is a really exciting possibility and enriching dynamic for all of us.
How do you imagine the center changing daily life for residents? I’m not sure it will change daily life, but it will open new opportunities for participation. There’s interest in mentorships. One of my dreams would be to run a one week choral camp in the summer where youth could come. And residents of Garden Spot. We have sopranos, altos, baritones who could work with a section and over the course of a week put on, then a performance, a choral performance that would please their parents and be wonderful entertainment for gardens by village that is just like so that is like so cool.
So. Well, so, like, speaking about those relationships. What kind of relationships do you sort of see between, like the center and organizations like Gretna Theater or the Stan Dean Foundation? Well, we already have a commitment from Gretna Theater to make the Center for Arts and Culture their home in the fall, winter and spring of the year.
And Michael O’Brien has a vision for bringing family theater to the center so that children and families could participate all year long, both as potential actors and in performances that would enhance life for all of us in eastern Lancaster County. Visteon Dean Foundation sees the center for Arts and Culture as a place for vulnerable youth to explore the arts.
How does that piece of the vision fit into what you’re hoping to build? I was with a meeting with them recently. It was so exciting to hear them talk about mentorships and one on one small group relationships, not just with gardens, but residents, but alumni of Garden Spot High School who knew the influence of standing and what was most important to that group in the meeting, as well as their vision, is that standing cared about people and was all about community.
Performance was only the vehicle to make them come together. Well, I thought about Wow so far, theater and garden spot with residents is a few people on the stage. I don’t do that piece. I help with costumes. What could it be for that standing foundation to pull together a small theatrical performance where students are the actors and maybe a few residents too, but then also have the behind the scenes people?
Because here would be a venue that would need lighting; people would need help with costumes and all of those kinds of things. They would build a broad, collaborative initiative and experience for residents, community members and children. I love the way you keep coming back to that sense of community. It’s like it’s like the distance you talked about.
It’s bringing people together, the sense of community, which is really at the heart of Garden Spot. It’s like that is that is so very cool. So other volunteers like Karin Freimuth and Alan Dinning have joined the effort. But what do you think draws people to say, say yes to something like that? I invited both of them to be part of the Spark Committee, because I knew their scope of relationships within Garden Spot Village and for Karin Freimuth.
She’s been a 50 year resident of New Holland, and so I saw her as a link to the community. When I invited her. She never hesitated to say yes because she had had previous experience as a volunteer for capital campaigns at her church and other fundraising initiatives in New Holland. Alan Denning, well, he’s a friend from back when we lived on the main line, but what he brings to the table is a background in marketing.
And in our first Spark committee meeting, he heard Josh Martin, a volunteer from the community who grew up at Garden Spot High School under the influence of stand being articulate. The need for something like this, because of the limited experience of many youth in eastern Lancaster County today. So if the Center for Arts and Culture opens exactly as you’re imagining it today, what do you want people to feel as they walk in the door?
Oh, all kinds of words come to mind. Inspiration. Connectivity. Excitement. Belongingness. So often those of us as we age can tend to have a negative perspective on younger generations because, well, they’re just not like life isn’t like when we were growing up. But for them to see, for us to see that enthusiasm, oh, they are people, young people of vision, of ability, of values, of willing to share the culture and the life experiences we had.
You know, one of the things I just another question that just sort of came to me as we’re talking here, you used the word often and that word was volunteer. You volunteered. Others volunteer like you. You’ve used that word so much. And it seems to me that our culture has moved to this point. And I’ve seen this lately, whereas people like, they don’t volunteer like this.
There’s this huge reluctance to volunteering. And yet the way that you talk about it, it’s like something that is amazing that we should all do. And I’ve just kind of curious, like, how do you like how do you view that? The volunteerism side of everything. Well, one of the really fun things is Wendy keeps saying to me, I’m so glad I’m not having to pay you.
But my volunteering and becoming involved in this was like a hand going into a glove. And I am thriving at this stage of life and with a whole new way to participate. And I’ve always been a people person, but this gives me a far broader scope of engaging with people and also helping Garden Spot Village with messaging. Well, thank you for joining us today.
Is there anything else that, as we were having a conversation that you were thinking that you’d like to share with our listeners there about the Center for Arts and Culture, what the vision might be for the future, anything like that. When my husband and I first moved to Garden Spot Village, we had season tickets to the Philadelphia Orchestra.
We drove to Thorndale, took the train and went to Friday matinees. Year after year, I’d scan the theater listings in Philadelphia. We would find a not so much big productions as just fun theater opportunities, whether it was People’s light or, the Swarthmore Players. So all of that had been part of our life before he moved to Garden Spot.
We were able to continue it, and then the train schedule changed, and now there is not frequent service from Thorndale to Philadelphia, because once you’re 65, you can ride Septa for free. I lost a part of the arts in my life. Now we found Mount Gretna and in the summer we would drive up there. The Fulton wasn’t always convenient.
Lancaster Symphony Orchestra moved around, and it was not a stable venue. We certainly attended everything that happened in the chapel, but having the Center for Arts and Culture allows for a different level of performance and production to come to Garden Spot Village. The chapel is very limited. This new center will have first class acoustics, a screen with that will provide for 3D imaging that is not hard sets.
So what it will mean for theatrical productions to come. It will mean a day sitting down with a computer and the technician that can help them create the set, but no longer having to find storage for what big sets would be. So just a very difference. Level of entertainment as well as the whole participation side of things.
If you would like to read the articles about Sally and the center for Arts and Culture that appeared in the fall 2026 issue of Destination Gardens by Communities magazine, click the links in the show notes. Thank you for listening to Purpose and Retirement. Our host of Scott Miller and our co-host is Juanita Fox. Our audio engineer and producer is Austin Gingerich.