SUTHERLAND, Iowa | In the quiet halls of an old school, two residents rested in recliners near an unlit fireplace on a blustery October day. Darlene Sickelka rocked gently in the chair.
“This is a good place for all the residents to gather and visit,” she said. “When the weather is warmer, we go outside. When it’s too cold like today, we come up here. Very few days go by that we’re not together.”
Her apartment’s just a few doors down from the commons area in the former Sutherland Consolidated School. All four of her children walked those same halls, getting an education years ago.
Sickelka, 84, has been living in the Willoway Complex for 14 years. She was one of the first to move in on the third floor.
“My husband had just died and I did not want to stay on the farm alone,” she said.
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Sickelka had been living in rural Gaza, Iowa, before the three-story school, built in 1921, was converted into apartments. It closed in 1993. Students joined the South O’Brien Community School District, and the abandoned facility was scheduled to be demolished.
Saving the school became a community project led by Mike Syndergaard, who was chairman of the Sutherland Recreation Corporation.
Syndergaard envisioned turning the gymnasium into the site of the town’s only swimming pool and carving out a space for a fitness center. That became a reality in 1996. Two years later, the top floor was transformed into eight independent living apartments.
Nine more apartments were completed in 2011 on the second floor.
Amenities include a library, salon, in-building mail service, grocery and prescription delivery, a common area outfitted with a fireplace, a large outdoor deck and Dinner Date meals three times a week. Plus, the building is handicap accessible.
Executive Director Mark Cody credits Syndergaard for having the foresight, imagination and no small measure of dedication to repurpose the vacant school.
“He had the vision of where we’re at today,” Cody said. “People are so amazed at what happened here.”
In a contest to rename the building, the winning entry flattened the phrase, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” to form Willoway. The sentiment rang loud in the town of 649 as a rallying cry to complete the complex.
Unfortunately, Syndergaard never got to see how far a dedicated group of volunteers and community supporters would take the project. He lost the fight to cancer in 2006. Before he died, Cody went to visit him. As he was about to leave, Syndergaard struggled to rise from his chair. He put out his hand and said, “Don’t screw this up.”
Cody didn’t know what it meant until he was tapped to take a leadership role within the Willoway Complex, eventually becoming Syndergaard’s successor and the executive director in 2012.
As the second floor classrooms and exterior features were updated, Cody discovered residents had plenty of input.
Out front, he proposed a 12-by-12-foot porch. They didn’t like that. They didn’t want to sit with their backs to Ash Street. So now, a ramp leads up to the entryway and a sprawling 8-foot-by-40-foot porch.
“They can all sit here and watch the people go by,” Cody said. “They had 10 times better ideas than what I had.”
During renovations, many original features were left in place like the tile floors, woodwork and drinking fountains – a nonfunctioning fixture that brings back memories.
Old metal plaques from the lockers now number the apartments. The former site of the principal’s office is No. 23 on the second floor. Down the hall, a custom glass inlay above a door, says, “Mike Syndergaard Library & Computer Room.”
Inside, the library is also outfitted with a single styling chair and sink, plus a dryer chair in the corner. Three local beauticians all schedule one day a week at the salon. They leave Friday open for hair emergencies. Also, a massage therapist comes in twice a week.
“I wanted this just as a library. They didn’t like that,” Cody said. “You tell eight ladies, no, that they can’t get their hair fixed. That’s what they wanted. It’s a great amenity. They were exactly right.”
Filling the 17 apartments, seniors like Pearl Powell have made the school their home.
Powell actually graduated from Sutherland High School in 1939, from the same building where she now lives.
Her family moved to the small town when she was in sixth grade. On the second floor, the former classroom is at the end of hall, and one of her old classmates lives upstairs.
Powell, 92, moved in a year ago, and she enjoys her one-bedroom apartment that came outfitted with all appliances. But the biggest draw to the Willoway Complex: community.
“There were people here. I was living alone after my husband died. It was the first time I’d ever lived alone,” Powell said. “It’s home. When I moved here, I was home again.”
