Val Valencia, left, and Anna Magdale smile at the end of the buffet line at the Helping Hands Community Hub fundraiser at Mr. Mike’s Pizza in Lake Placid on Sunday, May 19. (News photo — Sydney Emerson)

LAKE PLACID — More than 320 guests raised a total of $10,686 for the Helping Hands Community Hub at an Italian dinner fundraiser at Mr. Mike’s Pizza on Sunday, May 19.

The community hub, a planned new building that’ll house the Lake Placid Ecumenical Food Pantry and the shuttered Helping Hands Thrift Shop, is set to go up on the former site of Lake Placid Central School District’s basketball courts, next to the Shipman Youth Center.

The project comes with a $800,000 price tag. As of early May, the project had received $575,000 in direct donations.

This fundraiser marked the start of a community campaign to help the hub meet its goal.

“The community was exceptionally supportive,” said St. Agnes Church Rev. John Yonkovig. St. Agnes, which currently houses the food pantry, sponsored the fundraiser.

More than 300 people turned out to support the Helping Hands Community Hub fundraiser at Mr. Mike’s Pizza on Sunday, May 19, bringing in $10,686 for the project. (News photo — Sydney Emerson)

The new building will house the food pantry on one side and the thrift shop on the other, with a basement space for community meetings and a garage area to store secondhand furniture for the thrift shop. Homestead Development Corporation, a local nonprofit focused on creating affordable housing, is managing the construction of the hub. The prefabricated building from Simplex, a modular construction company based in Pennsylvania, is expected to arrive in June.

The building will go up over the summer and set its sights on a fall opening, pending approval from the Lake Placid-North Elba Joint Review Board and LPCSD voters. The review board will vote on the project following a June 5 public hearing, and LPCSD voters will take to the polls on June 24 to allow the district to donate the land the hub will sit on.

Yonkovig said on May 20 that the rapid development of the hub from idea to reality — all with support from local governments, nonprofits and community members — exemplifies the Lake Placid spirit.

“(The hub) is a wonderful testament to the village,” Yonkovig said. “It’s a real community need.”

Volunteers dish out pizza, salad and pasta to guests at the Helping Hands Community Hub fundraiser at Mr. Mike's Pizza on Sunday, May 19. (News photo — Sydney Emerson)