BOARDMAN — Mahoning County’s first responders now have a central rallying point to gather and to heal from the stress and strain of their jobs.

On Tuesday, the Clarence R. Smith Jr. Family Mahoning County First Responder Wellness Center was formally opened and dedicated by the Smith family and local officials.

“This started as a vision last fall with our police chief, Todd Werth,” said Boardman Township Trustee Tom Costello, who emceed the event and sits on the wellness center’s board. He praised Werth and contractor Dan O’Horo of the AP O’Horo Company. “Together, these gentlemen worked tirelessly to turn a vision into a reality.”

In April, Boardman trustees approved a $122,000 donation to the cause, and accepted a $464,000 donation for the center from the Mahoning County commissioners. Poland and Beaver Townships, along with The Youngstown Foundation, also gave money to the project that began last fall at the former homestead of the Smith family, on Raupp Road, near the Boardman Schools bus garage and the Boardman Township Government Center.

The center will be supported mostly by donations, through a newly formed 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The board overseeing the center consists of Costello, Mahoning County Commissioner Geno DiFabio and Gwen Smith-Darnell, daughter of Clarence Smith Jr.

Smith-Darnell praised the facility and everyone who was responsible for completing it.

“What has been created here is beyond words, you’ve touched the lives of many people here today,” she said. “When this began, their mission was to preserve as much of the Smith homestead as possible, in honor of my father for the generosity and kindness he gave to our communities and to others. Their desire was to create a sanctuary for our first responders.”

The money Mahoning County, Boardman, Poland and Beaver gave to it came from their shares of funds allocated through the OneOhio Foundation, which is responsible for administering the state’s share of a multi-billion-dollar national settlement with pharmaceutical companies for their part in the opioid epidemic.

Support of first responders who respond to and treat opiate addiction victims is an approved use of that money.

The main house, shown off Tuesday, is just phase one of the project.

Werth said in April that the second phase will be renovation of a detached building about 50 yards from the main house for a physical wellness annex. That building will be for physical fitness, wellness and rehabilitation specific to first responders.

Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board Executive Director Duane Piccirilli said his office already plans to hold its twice-yearly police training sessions, which help officers learn how to identify people with mental health issues and de-escalate those situations when they encounter them.

Tuesday was National First Responder Day, but Piccirrilli said it also marked the 25-year anniversary of his board’s efforts to provide that education to the county’s police officers and other first responders.

He said his respect for their professions and the stress of their jobs was impressed upon him in May 2024, when the Realty Tower building exploded in downtown Youngstown.

“I saw our first responders in action,” he said. “When I looked at their faces, there was no fear, there was duty, they were running in there without hesitation.”

Piccirrilli said the wellness center should be a great source of pride for the county.

“When I’m in Columbus, I’m always bragging about Mahoning County,” he said. “I always say the proudest thing we have is the Campus of Care in Austintown … and I always say it’s the jewel in the crown of Mahoning County. Well, now Mahoning County has another jewel.”

Among the who’s-who in attendance — judges, prosecutors, township and county leaders, first responder department heads — was U.S. Rep. MIchael Rulli, R-Salem, who provided a proclamation honoring the facility and the day.

Other speakers included Smith-Darnell’s son, Rick Kamperman, a former Marine and Houston, Texas police officer. In 2017, his partner, Ronny Cortez, was paralyzed when a burglary suspect opened fire as they were investigating a series of home break-ins.

Kamperman said it is rare for the general public to gain insight about what first responders face.

“These guys have to carry that every day, and if they start talking about it, people start looking at them weird, and that’s why we kinda close ourselves off and just kinda stick to our own,” he said. “Every time you put on that uniform… you don’t know if you’re coming home. Then when you come home and you’re just trying to decompress, and they’re just doing normal life, it’s hard. And it’s every day, and it’s relentless, and you have to be the strongest guy in the room.”

Kamperman said his hope is that the center will not just be a place where first responders come to recover from some acute traumatic experience, but a place where they will gather regularly, just to enjoy the space and decompress and share the camaraderie of their peers.

“My family could not be happier that this is gonna be here for you guys, this is your house now,” he said.

Smith-Darnell noted one feature of the grounds that she thinks is particularly special.

“My mother Rose Marie, dedicated the fountain in memory of their first child, my brother, Clarence Smith III, who died at the age of 13 in 1965,” she said. At Rose Marie Smith’s direction, the plaque on that fountain reads “faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.”

“May the wellness center always bring faith, hope and love to everyone who enters its doors,” she said. “I know my father is smiling and saying ‘good job boys.'”