Leona Rega wanted to be close to home.

The 1989 Tamaqua graduate didn’t want to leave. And despite her family transitioning elsewhere, she decided to stay.

“There was something about the community, even in ‘89, when there was nothing here - the train station wasn’t even around then,” Rega said. “I didn’t want to leave. I wanted roots and I wanted to have this place that I could raise my own children and family that they felt connected.”

Rega spent her 20s and 30s working outside of the Tamaqua community.

“My home was here, because the real estate was cheap, and I loved the idea that it was a small town,” said Rega. “But I didn’t spend much time here. I spent most of my 30s raising my children, looking for things for them to do and saying hmm, I wish we had this or that. My dreams of what we could have in this community were probably developed before I started this job.”

Eventually, Rega sat down as director of the Tamaqua Community Arts Center for the first time. “I thought it would keep me closer to home and available to my family when they needed me,” she said. “I took the job thinking it would be something fun to do, not even knowing when I sat here for the first time that it would become what it is now.”

Heart and soul

Perhaps the job wasn’t what she initially expected. But it didn’t stop Rega from pouring her heart and soul into it. Her love and passion for the community and its people made the role exactly what she wanted it to be.

“There are countless efforts that go into it. This job wasn’t just coming in every day, opening up the door, and saying come in and paint. This was about thoughtful planning and development. Everything that we did here had a purpose; there was an end goal and something that we hoped to achieve.”

Rega comes from a family of artists. Although she doesn’t consider herself one, her superb talent is elsewhere.

“My gift was really in organization. The ability to plan, organize and forecast. I’m just going to say it, I have an intuition. I was able to look at things and I could know what people would want. Knowing what people want and being able to find ways to bring it to them - it just all fell together.”

The arts center turned into a place where a person can grow and feel comfortable when doing uncomfortable things.

Whether it’s a new artist showing off work for the first time, or learning something new during a class, there is something for everyone to broaden their horizons. Now, Rega has taken almost every class herself, and even has some of her own work hanging on the office wall.

Bittersweet

It’s a bittersweet goodbye for Rega, who truly led the charge in building the arts center from ground up.

Rega and her husband will relocate to Gettysburg, where she will take on the executive director role of the Adams County Arts Council.

“Some might say why now? My children are now in college; they’re raised. I always knew that when I got to this point of my life, it would be time to move on. It was a struggle. I think someone’s biggest fear when you move on from something like this, is that you don’t want it to disappear. You never want to let go of what you built, but yet sometimes, it’s for the good of the child, that you leave it to grow in someone else’s hands.”

Tamaqua native Drew Bonner will step in.

“It becomes beautiful because someone has an opportunity to take it to another place. I do feel that I’ve developed the arts center and taken it to a place that I feel good about,” Rega said.

Rega’s last day with the arts center was Oct. 30. She does not want it to go stale and feels that new leadership will help it flourish and grow.

“It’s up to you, the members of the community and region, to choose your happiness by plugging yourself into something that makes you feel good about yourself.”

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