“I’m not trying to save the world… if [the community center] helps one kid have a better outcome than they would’ve had without it, I’m good,” Gianluca Vera LoPiccolo said. 

As the founder of the Gabriella Rose Community Center (GRCC), LoPiccolo has great plans, and even greater ambitions, for ways he can help his community. Through the community center, he would offer a “Third Place” for the people in Lansdale who want somewhere else to go, somewhere safe and not school, home, or work. 

“The importance of a third place is to give people a place to mentally decompress and take a break from their life for a second,” LoPiccolo stated. 

“They can come here. They can relax. They can forget about their worries for however long they’re here. It’s much better than having them fight day by day and have to push through it, even though they don’t want to be somewhere,” founding member Eshan Jahan added. 

The GRCC would be a resource available for everyone, free of cost. LoPiccolo and Jahan prioritize accessibility above all else to give opportunities to those who wouldn’t typically have them. They plan on including 3-D printers, a gym, and even networking to help the local homeless population. 

“My idea for the fitness center was a self-defense class,” Jahan said. “It was to teach people how to defend themselves […] Kids, adults, elderly… people learning and actively staying off the streets and doing something that would benefit them… that would be great.”

While they don’t have a physical location yet, LoPiccolo has a distinct vision for what he imagines the GRCC to be. For those who watched The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as a kid, he described his ideal environment to be similar to the Angel Grove Youth Center, full of laughs, casual hang outs, and comfort. He wants to give the people in Lansdale a safe haven he didn’t have when he was younger. 

Growing up as a child of Latino immigrants, LoPiccolo has special experiences that he believes he can use to help others like him. 

“I know a lot of people in the Latino community, especially, who don’t have access to any [mental health resources]. It’s like [mental health] doesn’t exist,” he said. “I want to be able to have a place where that’s comfortable to talk about […] I just want the GRCC to be like a 3rd home.”

LoPiccolo’s life in of itself is a symbol of the unlimited things a person can do with their life. 

“I was a good student, but I was self-destructive […] I started wrestling, and wrestling gave me the mental discipline to pull myself out of the situations I was in,” he stated.

But not all people had the resources to improve their lives like he did. 

“My really good friend […] he always used to say to me that [using drugs] was the only thing he could do. I was like ‘No, bro. You’re so smart. If you can handle all this, you can put your brain to other things,’ but he was like, ‘No. I can’t,” LoPiccolo explained. “And that honestly resonated with me a lot. Why should he feel like this is the only thing he can do? I feel like all these kids just need one adult they can talk to to be like, ‘No, no, no, come on. Let’s get it together.’ I always wished I had a mentor or someone like that when I was younger.”

Even though the timeline for the GRCC reaches far into the future, LoPiccolo and Jahan have full confidence that all their hard work will come to fruition. 

“I always used to be for the instant gratification kind of thing, but I’ve learned that if it’s worth it, it takes a while,” LoPiccolo confessed. 

LoPiccolo has a general and honest passion for helping people. Even with his biotechnology major, he hopes to change lives. 

“My whole plan was to work in a lab and save somebody… I need to just help people when I can,” he said. “The GRCC is not going to be helpful for everybody […] This can be helpful for those couple kids that need to get out of the house and need somewhere to be.”

As a last piece of advice to the next generation, LoPiccolo and Jahan offer this:

“Don’t go after something that’s easy. Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s the right thing,” LoPiccolo said. “Putting the work in is actually good in the long run. It’s going to take a while, and [you’re going to think] why am I doing it? […] But there’s a long life after that.”

“‘If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you,’” Jahan added, a quote that’s written on the wall of his kickboxing gym. “It’s up to you to have that discipline to take you further, and having it as a child will really set you up later in life.”

Website: https://gogrcc.org/

Email: [email protected]