As Nikki Post walks into the former Boys and Girls Club in Endicott, you won’t have to look far to notice some changes.

Post was named director of the center when the Children’s Home purchased the vacant property two years ago. But with an old building comes the need for upgrades, like a new, safer divider for basketball courts.

“It gives us the opportunity to have two basketball games going: one on one side, one on the other side. It also gives us an opportunity to have our community in here at the same time in two different groups as well,” Post said.

And while these may seem like small changes, they’re going a long way to bring the building back to life. It’s part of a massive renovation of the former club to turn the now-Southern Tier Community Center into a place for everyone.

“No age is exempt from coming to the community center. No background, no ethnicity. All are welcome here," said Post.

But the renovation and adapting to the ever-changing times hasn’t always been easy, especially right after the center opened.

“We thought ‘hey, let’s open a community center in the middle of a pandemic,’ and one of the first things we did was have school-age child care, and schools went remote, so parents were really scrambling. We said ‘how can we help?’ ” said Kate Carello, the Children’s Home vice president of strategic initiatives.

Since then, Post and her staff have been able to support hundreds of local children. Now they’re getting a bit of help. M&T Bank donated $20,000 to the center, which should allow it to complete phase 1 of the project by the spring.

“We’ve always maintained that for us to be successful within communities we operate, our communities have to be successful,” said M&T Bank Regional President Peter Newman.

The Southern Tier Community Center expects to begin offering membership registration to the community in the spring.