The staff at the East End Family Resource Center was already expecting a busy week this week, as they planned a block party and one of their biggest fundraisers of the year.
Then the White House called.
"So as if this week wasn't already going to be crazy enough with two events to have to plan for, plus all the services, we sort of got our building taken over to be occupied by the White House and the Secret Service," said Matt Sutton, a board member for the center.
The center, housed inside the Roosevelt Neighborhood Center, hosted President Barack Obama's event on opioid addiction Wednesday afternoon.
The staff first learned of the possibility of hosting the president's visit a week ago, a day after the White House announced plans for Obama to come to the city to address the region's opioid epidemic.
"We had our kids outside and these gentlemen came up to us and said, 'Hey can we talk to you about leasing the building next Wednesday,'" said Michael Farmer, director of the center's after-school program. "And I said, 'OK, that's kind of soon,' and they said, 'Can we go off somewhere? We're with the White House.' And I said, 'OK, let's go upstairs and talk.'"
White House staff had already spoken with Mayor Danny Jones and asked to approach the center, said Terri Berkley, the center's executive director. About 15 White House staff members came to the center last Thursday, checking out the center and the neighborhood, Berkley said. The center was one of several facilities considered for the event.
While they were happy to host the president, Berkley said, it was important to make sure that services to the community weren't interrupted in the days leading up to the event.
"If we were to stop services, we have kids that would have had nowhere to go," Sutton said.
Through all the long hours of planning, the staff kept up those services. Students in the after-school program were planning to be at Piedmont Elementary School on Wednesday anyway, so they changed the parent pickup point to Piedmont, instead of the center. They also changed the location of a lunch for senior citizens on Wednesday.
Continuing services was important to the White House staff, too, Berkley said.
"The White House staff made it very clear from day one that if it would impede in any programming we were going to do that this would not be an option," she said.
Wednesday's event had the center's gymnasium transformed. A platform was added in the front, where the president and others spoke. Chairs were set up for the audience. On a stage at the side of the gym and risers in the back, dozens of journalists set up. A router was added to enhance the center's wireless Internet.
Also, the White House presented a list of its needs to the community center. Among them: moving a Dumpster outside the center and taking down the basketball rims from the gym.
"I cannot tell you how critical removing that rim was," Berkley said. "It was actually a deal-breaker for the event."
The center called local construction company BrooAlexa, which donated their services to take down the rim and put it back up.
The center was asked to have 20 volunteers at the event. They brought in 22, Berkley said.
While the staff wasn't quite sure what to expect, Sutton said members of the Secret Service were really laid back.
"We had a great experience," Sutton said. "When the White House or Secret Service knocks on your door, you're not quite sure how the relationship will go. Are they going to come in and just start making demands and be in charge and all that kind of stuff? And in our experience that couldn't be further from the truth.
"They were amazing to work with," he said.
Berkley said she was told there would be Secret Service there around the clock leading up to the event within a 10-street radius of the center.
"I think they were here since Thursday and they may have been here prior to that. We would never know," she said.
The staff was told plans as it needed to know them. Plans were tentative, too, they were told that at any point the venue could be changed.
Vendors started coming into the center Monday, Berkley said. The biggest of the vendors came Tuesday morning when an 18-wheeler semi truck showed up and 30 to 40 people started unloading things.
"You just thought, how's that going to fit in the gym?" Berkley said. "It was like a real production."
The staff members got to see the gymnasium as it transformed, but Berkley said when the setup was complete, it was difficult to recognize.
"We were just in awe, but it was like, 'Where am I?' It was just completely changed," she said.
Farmer and Berkley got a special surprise during the event Wednesday: they got to meet President Obama.
"My first thought when he walked in the room is, 'He's taller than I thought he would be,'" Farmer said. Obama thanked them for their work hosting the event. Berkley thanked him for his work. Farmer joked that if the basketball hoops were still up, they would play basketball.
They found out later that the president had signed a tattered old Obama campaign poster that was hanging in a classroom. He also left them with an autographed picture of himself and signed one of the center's signs.
Farmer said for him the best part wasn't meeting the president, but telling the kids at the center about the president coming to their center and seeing how excited it made them.
"To go back and to tell them he was in our building, he was in your room," Farmer said. "I think the cool part was that there was a photo and they said 'That's our gym! That's where he was at!'"
Reach Lori Kersey at Lori.Kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter.