ATLAS Celebrates One Year of Impact at New Learning Center
New second facility expands programming, strengthens community partnerships, and creates new opportunities for children and families across Greene County.
One year after opening its doors to students and their families, ATLAS Ministry is celebrating the first anniversary of its new learning center and reflecting on a year marked by expanded programming, new partnerships, and increased opportunities to serve children and their families throughout Greene County.
The learning center welcomed students for the first time on September 8, 2025. While the facility was designed to create additional capacity for ATLAS programs, its impact over the past year has extended far beyond what the organization initially envisioned.
“Looking back on this past year, we stand here today in awe of how God has moved throughout these walls,” said Lisa Brondyke, Development Director for ATLAS. “We want to personally thank everyone who answered the call to support this vision. It is because of their generosity that we were able to serve over 525 students in this building alone this past school year and expand our programs to serve additional middle and high school students at our South Main Street campus.”
“Our donors’ investment didn’t simply build a building. It created capacity for more students, deeper programming, new partnerships, and opportunities we simply could not have pursued before,” said Ryan Gibadlo, CEO of ATLAS Ministry.
Expanding Opportunities for Students
During the past school year, seven full-time ATLAS programs operated from the new learning center, serving more than 525 children. Now, during the first semester of the 2026-2027 school year, 451 children are already being served through ATLAS programs at the new facility.
ATLAS partnered with The Oconee Performing Arts Society (OPAS) and Greene County Elementary School to provide opt-in music classes to kindergarten through fifth-grade students at the ATLAS Learning Center during their school day. Beyond music, ATLAS Christian Learning Classes offers Bible courses to interested students. The program currently welcomes over 250 elementary students across its various offerings and anticipates serving nearly 400 by the end of the school year.
The facility has also provided room for ATLAS Academy to grow to 90 students, with kindergarten through fifth-grade learning under one roof. Sixteen small reading rooms provide space for individualized instruction, allowing students to receive support tailored to their specific learning needs.
The learning center also houses a new OPAS piano lab, allowing students to participate in piano classes taught by Amy Reber. Students can also choose to take hand drums, dance, or agriculture as other enrichment classes.
The additional space has strengthened ATLAS’s summer programming as well. During a six-week Leadership Summit, 60 high school students were trained and equipped to lead 120 children each week, for three weeks, through a discipleship-focused camp experience.
With the expanded facility, campers participated in a wide range of hands-on activities, including woodworking, horseback riding, culinary skills, wilderness and survival skills, fishing and boating, dance, cheer, art, and swimming.
Together, these programs demonstrate the significant role the new learning center has played in giving ATLAS greater capacity to serve students throughout the school year and summer.
A Place for the Community
The learning center has quickly become more than a home for ATLAS programs. It has also become a place where the broader community can gather, collaborate, and create new opportunities together.
During its first year, the facility hosted full-length productions of Junie B. Jones and The Wizard of Oz through The Arts Barn and OPAS, FCA gatherings, Knights of Worship, school graduations and award ceremonies, as well as community events including Lake Oconee Builders Association meetings and United Way Days of Caring.
“This building has become more than an ATLAS facility. It has become a place where our community comes together,” said Brondyke. “We never could have anticipated the collaboration capacity this facility would provide.”
These partnerships and community gatherings have helped establish the new learning center as a shared community space and created new opportunities for ATLAS to continue responding to the needs of Greene County.
As ATLAS celebrates one year in its second location, the organization is looking ahead with gratitude and anticipation for what is next.
“This first year has shown us that when our community comes together and follows God’s leading, the impact can reach far beyond what we could imagine,” said Gibadlo. “We are incredibly grateful to everyone who helped make this possible and excited to see how God will continue to use this space to change lives.”