Dianne Schall -Supervisor for Recreation (Ellet Community Center)
The word of the day was “lucky.” That’s how Dianne Schall feels to be the supervisor of the Ellet Community Center. It’s also how she feels to be leading her staff, or in her words, her “second family.” What started as seasonal work at a community center has turned into a 20 year career with the City. When you listen to what her second family has to say about her, you’ll understand that luck had nothing to do with it. She’s been described as a “rockstar” and “incredibly nice and kind to everyone.” When it comes to her work and managing an entire Community Center, they said, “She juggles it all beautifully and always with a smile on her face.” Dianne is obviously grateful to be where she is, but if you ever get a chance to sit down and talk with her, you’ll consider yourself to be the lucky one.
1. What does your job entail?
My job is to manage the Community Center. I am tasked with coming up with programming and running the day to day operations. We do collaborate between the various Community Centers from time to time, but the main goal is to look at the community you’re in and figure out what kind of programming is right for them. The populations at the different centers can be very different which makes the dynamics very different. Here in Ellet for example, I have a lot of active adults who love to play cards, so pretty much every night of the week we have some kind of card game. You just missed Bridge Mondays. I feel lucky that we have a wide range of people who use the Center. We have active adults but we also run a tiny tot program for 2–5 year olds and we’ve started our tiny tot basketball program for 4–7 year olds. I started out as a preschool teacher so I love working with the little kids. It’s a really fun and rewarding job.
2. What is your favorite part about your job/working for the City of Akron?
The best part is really what we do. I wouldn’t do well with a desk job. I’m a people person and I like to be up and talking to people. With this job I get to run special events, concerts, summer camps, etc. I get to create a space where kids come to have fun. I love to see people having a great time and upping their quality of life. One of the most rewarding things is when people come up to us and say, “Thank you for providing this place and this programming.” We often fill the gap for people. For example, with the tiny tot program, some people don’t have the money for those expensive daycares or conversely they may make just a bit too much in order to qualify for any assistance so that is where we come in and provide this programming to fill that gap.
Beyond that, my staff is great. I have 2 really dedicated, fabulous tiny tot instructors. I’m lucky in that I have a dedicated staff who really care about what they do. I think really all of the supervisors view the centers as our second homes. We want them to look good and perform well and we want people to feel welcome. We want to create a space for people to come and enjoy and have these interesting things for people to do.
3. What are some of your hobbies or what do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I’ve always been an artsy person. I like painting and crafting. My husband and I have recently started traveling more. We never really took vacations for a long time so now we are sort of making up for lost time. We’ve recently been to Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean. I’m starting to learn how to relax. We have 3 kids who are grown now.
4. Do you have a favorite Akron restaurant/brewery/coffee shop/etc.?
My family and I really like Oldies but Goodies here in Ellet. They have great burgers. I actually gave them their plates! I had all these heavy diner plates from a diner on Kenmore Blvd. and I just went in and told them about these plates and they immediately wanted them. Even now when I go in there, it’s those plates that they are using.
5. Do you have a favorite memory of working for the city?
Well actually my favorite memory was meeting my husband at work. He started on maintenance. Normally when things would break at the Center, we’d wait until there were 3 or 4 broken things before we called maintenance to come fix them all at once. My boss at the time, Sally Nyburg, knew that I liked him though and so when things would break, she’d call him to come fix it immediately. We just celebrated our 25th anniversary.
6. What is your proudest accomplishment while working for the city?
Honestly, I’m quite proud of the relationship I have with my staff. I treat my staff like my second family. I like to think that I’ve created an environment where they would feel comfortable talking to me about anything. As a supervisor, I’m here to uplift and build up my staff and make them feel like recreation is an open world where they can try new things. Jerry Rowland, who passed this spring, really built up the tiny tot basketball program. He told me that it could work here and be successful. He really encouraged me to do it. We are starting it up for our third year and we have 35 kids signed up and there will be a waiting list again. I want to be the kind of mentor to my staff that Jerry was for me. I want them to try new things and to listen to the community for what they want and to feel empowered to do so.
7. Do you ever utilize the community center personally?
Oh yeah all the time. I take exercise classes 3–4 times a week. I’ll drive my car home and then walk back to the center to work out and then walk home. I actually recently lost 120 pounds so the center has been great to use for my own health!
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If you are interested in checking out the Ellet Community Center, you can find out more info about them here: https://www.akronohio.gov/cms/ellet/index.html or by calling them at 330–375–2809. They are located at the back of Hyre Middle School and offer programming for all ages. Come visit and maybe you’ll get a chance to meet Dianne while you’re at it!