Kirtland Spouses' Club has new home

  • Published
  • Nucleus writer

The Kirtland Spouses’ Club has a home in the old enlisted club building at Kirtland Air Force Base.

“For years we had no home – and now we’re finally home,” said KSC President Frank Capuano.

The group moved into its new clubhouse on the corner of Frost and Texas streets in April.

As many of Kirtland’s personnel and their spouses know, moving into the new clubhouse wasn’t easy, and club earned every inch of the space, Capuano said.

“You couldn’t walk through here,” he said, referring to the large room with a stage, informally christened “the KSC ballroom.”

Desks, cubical partitions and filing cabinets littered the floor, while cable drops hung from the ceiling, he explained.

It took three days for the KSC board members, with most of their active-duty spouses and many general members, to clean up the building.

The KSC ballroom enhances club gatherings, since it can accommodate larger events that are impossible to facilitate at a private home. Capuano said using the clubhouse for certain events reduces the burden of hosting and draws in more attendees with the promise of the facility’s benefits.

“In a space like this, kids can run around a bit or have a designated area for them,” Capuano said. “It gives us an opportunity to more easily provide babysitting during events and board meetings.”

Activities and events are already underway at the clubhouse. The ballroom has been used for three events, and June 15 marked the first of many planned weekly “Summer Storytimes.”

“Both parents and kids can volunteer to sign up and read,” explained RieAnn Chavez-Gettings, a former elementary teacher who brought her sons, Samuel, 6, and Noah, 1, to the reading and activity event she directed this week.

“When the school year ends, moms and dads think, ‘What can we do?’” she said, adding that Summer Storytime began with this question.

Chavez-Gettings said she sought a program location where Noah could run around, make noise and be entertained while, Samuel could read, draw, do other activities and engage with other children. The KSC facility accommodated younger and older children, and provided a getaway from home while being conveniently close to home, she said.

Not everything in the clubhouse is ready for use, and the backyard’s weathered wooden gazebos and benches are a restoration project in progress, according to Capuano. The target deadline for sanding and repainting the gazebos and reconstruction of the benches is the membership kickoff on Aug. 20.

“The club has been around at least since 1959,” Capuano said, “so we have a long history at Kirtland, even though most of that history goes quietly unnoticed.”

He went on to say the biggest benefit of the newly repurposed facility is the clubhouse’s ability to offer continuity in the transient military community, allowing the club to better serve Kirtland’s spouses.

“In a way this clubhouse is our anchor,” he said, “or to use a USAF expression, this is our flightline.”