Fairfax County Celebrates Opening Of New Annandale Community Center

ANNANDALE, VA — Dozens of residents joined Fairfax County officials on Saturday to celebrate the opening of the Annandale Community Center, a new space in the Heritage Shopping Plaza where after-school activities and other programming will be provided.

The new 2,100-square-foot community center will offer programs for children in kindergarten through high school Monday through Friday, including academic programs and fun activities.

Similar to the Culmore Club in the Bailey’s Crossroads area of Fairfax County, the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington will manage the activities at the facility. The community center is located inside Fairfax County's Braddock District, but is very close to the county's Mason District.

"It will serve the residents who live in the thousands of housing units within walking distance and the juxtaposition of two elementary schools and Annandale High School — what a perfect location," Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross said at the ceremony.

Groups such as the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington have been providing youth programs in the Washington, D.C., area for decades, but finding space for those programs has always been an issue, Gross said.

"I am particularly pleased to see this brand-new intentional space, which will serve today's youth as well as tomorrow's and on and on in generations for many years to come," she said.

Fairfax County signed a 10-year lease with Heritage Shopping Plaza at 7879 Heritage Drive for the space formerly occupied by CrossFit Annandale. The new community center has two large rooms, plus a smaller room, a kitchen and two bathrooms.

The Annandale Community Center name for the facility was selected after receiving input from the community, officials said at Saturday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.

In his remarks at the ceremony, Jim Almond, senior vice president of operations for the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington, said the Annandale Community Center "went from a concept to reality and the reality is beautiful."

Almond noted the strong relationship between the Boy & Girls Club and Fairfax County over the last 20 years and said the next stop for the organization will be in Herndon, where it plans to work with young people.

The Annandale Community Center will be an important facility where young people can come together, especially after the past three years when many were isolated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay said at the ceremony.

McKay also highlighted how the new center is in a place that is walkable for many young people in the Annandale area.

Having a place to go after school to get help with homework, take English language classes and have access to the Internet will help to change the lives of children in the area, he said.

Keesha Jackson-Muir, principal of nearby Braddock Elementary School, noted that her school has more than 850 students and 600 of them walk to school. "That means this community center is going to be of great value to them," Jackson-Muir said.

Pedro Herrera Santiago, a fifth-grade student at Braddock Elementary School who spoke at the event, thanked Jackson-Muir for her support as principal. He explained that he was 4-years-old when he first came to the U.S. in 2016 and how he believes the new community center will help his fellow youth with learning English like he did soon after he arrived in the U.S.

In December, Herrera Santiago was named Young Person of the Year at the 2022 Best of Braddock Awards for his work with young people and his classmates in the community.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the public was invited to tour the new center. Inside the center, Herrera Santiago told Patch that opening a new community center close to Braddock Elementary School was important because if it were farther away, many students may not attend classes at the center.

"We're so proud of him," Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw said about Herrera Santiago. "But he's representative of the amazing students at Braddock Elementary School, who are embraced by this entire community — the administrators, the teachers and the broader community. And this community center is for them."