Laurelville Retreat Center launches capital campaign for $2.3M Gathering Place

Laurelville Retreat Center in Mt. Pleasant Township plans to break ground this fall on a $2.3 million meeting space at the center of its 600-acre campus.

According to Executive Director Jeanette Lahm, Laurelville leadership has anticipated this expansion for the past 20 years.

“The bed space that we have here at Laurelville doesn’t match the gathering place,” she said. “We can sleep more than we can gather in one space.”

While Laurelville offers lodging for more than 450 guests, the current meeting space, the Meetinghouse, holds only about 175 guests.

The Christian retreat center’s governing board appointed a capital committee in October 2021 to solve capacity and building limitations so that it might serve up to 25,000 overnight and 18,000 day guests each year. There are eight full-time employees and dozens of part-time seasonal employees on the campus.

The Gathering Place, the name for the new building, will have a capacity of 400 people.

Youth program manager Leah Rittenhouse said Laurelville’s “Christ-like hospitality” greatly influenced her faith as a camper and prompted her return as a staff member.

“For me, so much of my spiritual growth as a young person happened here at Laurelville,” she said.

Rittenhouse said she hopes that the new building will help further the ministry of Laurelville, which is focused on “deep friendships, being in nature and encountering God.”

Lahm said the Gathering Place will be a service to the community.

“We expect that it will be a beautiful new way that we can support Westmoreland County,” she said.

With hiking trails, a community pool and various seasonal camp programs, Laurelville has been associated with the Mennonite Church since 1943.

Lahm smiled while describing a normal view from her office’s porch.

“We’ve got Mt. Pleasant school here right now. And we’ve got kids in the creek doing a pond study. We’ve got kids right outside my window, about 50 kids fishing for trout.”

Lahm said Laurelville has raised $1.72 million for the building and is promoting a donation match of up to $500,000.

A fire in February 2022 destroyed the maintenance building on the campus. It has been rebuilt.

For more information, visit Laurelville.org.