Lee — When the Lee Youth Commission assembles on September 10, things will look a bit different than in years past. Commission Chair Kathy Hall announced her retirement from the position last week, a red-letter day for the Lee resident who has dedicated a decade of her life to improving the town, creating and updating play areas for its youth.
A Lee native, Hall matriculated from its schools, including Lee High School, where she taught social studies and English for more than 30 years until her first retirement. And that is when her volunteerism began, accepting a Lee School Committee post she assumed for 12 years.
In 2015, Hall and two other Lee School Committee volunteers were approached by a Select Board official to reinvigorate the Lee Youth Commission from its defunct status, with an eye toward cleaning up the local fields and playgrounds. Not skipping a beat, the mother of two now-grown boys agreed.
“I was always interested in the town and things that were good for our children,” Hall said. “I had seen the mess down at the [Lee] Athletic Field, especially, and I said, ‘I think I can do something here.’”
The first project she took on was the reconstruction of the pavilion at the Lee Athletic Field, 118-150 Housatonic Street, that had been taken down because it was in disarray. Hall made sure the open-air structure encompassed a roof “because you need a place to bring families that might have a baby and they have a decent place to change that baby.”
Without technical construction expertise herself, she “knew somebody who could help,” gratis, a find from chatting with a then-stranger-turned-friend in the voting poll line. With five other carpenters giving their time and corporate donations, the project was completed in one weekend. Improvements were made to the site grounds, a basketball court was painted, and picnic tables were added.
Hall had sealed her top spot in the Lee Youth Commission.
“It was neat, it was clean, the graffiti was gone,” she said of the project.
Hall soon roped in her husband Bill Hall to help out with the commission’s programs, and often wielding a brush and bucket of paint.
“Once people saw that we were not going to allow ugliness in our park, it stopped,” Hall said. “People were just so happy about a safe place for their kids: no swearing, no loud music. It was wonderful.”
Next, Hall and her team tackled the tennis court, again finding professionals who repaired the site for free the first year, with its later maintenance priced “right” for the town, she said.
A bocce court? No problem. “I said, ‘Well, I don’t know anything about bocce even though I’m a fine Italian,’” Hall said.
For the sake of the town, she gathered residents to create what was needed for outdoor sports.
Not even a massive rainstorm on the eve of construction could deter Hall and the 25 volunteers she organized to add a toddler’s playground to the park, a project funded through a state grant matched by town monies. “It was quite the challenge, but we got it done,” she said of installing the climbing bars, teeter totter, and other equipment. “It’s been wonderful.”
A hockey mom, Hall couldn’t envision the fields without an ice-skating rink. And, just like that—well, after receiving the Lee Conservation Commission’s blessing due to the flood zone encompassing the fields—the town now boasts a 60-foot-by-100-foot arena that is assembled and taken down annually by at least 10 volunteers each season. “However, the weather never cooperated,” she said of the dates planned for putting up and filling the rink.
The popularity of the new addition was enormous. “One day, we had 36 people out there skating,” Hall said. “We had people even from Pittsfield that came down to skate. We had older people who were on adult hockey teams that came to practice, just to skate around.”
Pickleball courts soon followed, with the lines of that sport painted on the tennis courts.
With so many additions, Hall was instrumental in coordinating the high school carpentry class to build a shed to store the court nets, skating rink parts, and 28 pairs of donated skates.
Recently, she headed up an expansion of the Lee Athletic Field’s skatepark, and her final efforts surround the creation of an onsite Ninjafit Outdoor Obstacle Course Playground.
And those endeavors at the Lee Athletic Field involve only one of Lee’s five parks. During her commission tenure, Hall successfully advocated for the remaining town venues at Marble Street, South Lee, Bradley Street, and East Lee, with those parks eventually welcoming new climbing equipment, a simulated fire truck, swing sets, rocking fixtures, and a teepee.
Each year, the Commission determined what project would be its focus, helped by its membership that included physical education teachers who knew the type of equipment required to grow the community’s youngest members.
Although, after three years of planning, a proposed multi-million-dollar community center project on Stockbridge Road failed to achieve the votes needed to move forward, Hall said she sees the possibility of a “community room” set in the former fire station as well as the addition of a splash park/solid ice rink coming to fruition.
She vowed to retire when she reached her 80th birthday, and that happened with a lot of fanfare on September 2.
The Lee Select Board presented her with a plaque at their bi-monthly meeting, dedicating the Lee Athletic Field Playground to Hall and noting that she was a founding member of the Lee Youth Commission, served as chairperson of the commission for over 10 years, and made numerous contributions to both the town and the commission for years.
That plaque is now posted on a jungle gym at the Lee Athletic Fields.
“My family, for years, said, ‘You know, you gotta retire, you’ve got to slow down,’” Hall said. “And I said, ‘OK, as soon as I hit 80 [years old], I’m done.’ I hit 80 [years old], so I’m done.” With a twinkle in her eye, she admitted, “we’ll see.”
