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One thing a community does together is to honor and celebrate success.

To share the Bridgewater community's pride in its newly expanded Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center, young and old are invited to tour the enlarged nursery space, the renovated and enlarged fitness center, and expansion's second floor, where dreams are yet to be fulfilled. The building dedication, titled "Our Community: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow," will take place Tuesday, June 2, 6:30 p.m., followed at 7:30 p.m. by the joint Annual Meeting of the JCC and Jewish Federation of Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren Counties.

The dedication will honor the founders of the Somerville Jewish community and the major donors to the expanded JCC as it showcases the new spaces. The bottom floor of the new 20,000-square-foot addition houses the preschool, expanded from three to seven or eight classrooms, opened in September 2008. Fitness classes, which took place in the multipurpose room until February, are now in a state-of-the-art fitness studio with special flooring, a great sound system, and mirrors, converted from three existing classrooms in the old building.

Addie Kluger, current JCC President, is excited about this big step forward. "The JCC is a vibrant, lively place," she said. "We value our members tremendously, and we want to meet the needs in the community." The JCC satisfies social needs through its active senior program; preschool; sports clinics and games; and it swim team and championship elite swim team, involving 300 children. The pool, which also hosts swim classes, lap swims, and exercise classes, is also on the table for an expansion, Kluger said.

The program for the dedication will look to the community's past, present, and future. Showcasing the past will be a book recently put together by a group of dedicated JCC volunteers, titled "History of the Jews of Somerville and Environs 1864 to 2008." Not only will copies be on sale for $20, but the event will be honoring the people interviewed in this publication and their families. "It will be reunion of sorts, a multigenerational reunion of those people who really planted the seeds for what exists today," said Susan Ferbank, executive director of the JCC. "It is really a very important and essential part of our value system at the JCC to honor those people who have created this community."

For Ferbank, the designation of the Jewish Community Center really describes the center's role in creating Jewish community. "Since the JCC was built, I believe it has become a magnet for young families to move to this area," said Ferbank. "When young families are interested in an organized Jewish community, they go online and look for synagogues and JCCs, and the center becomes a meeting place for those families."

They start with early childhood programs, stay for the youth camps, and then their children come to work out and swim as young adults, she said.

"Many families have met through the JCC," Ferbank said. "The existence of this JCC in a community that is really quite small really signifies a commitment and focus to the Jewish community."

The second part of the dedication will focus on the JCC as it is today -- by way of a tour through the new facilities. First the new nursery school, whose capacity has increased by about 40 percent; not only does it have beautiful new rooms with bright colors and lots of sunshine, but it also offers preschoolers the unusual opportunity of using a pool and full gymnasium on the premises. Ferbank noted that registration is very robust for next September.

At the new fitness center, said Kluger, "We can add as many classes as people want, and our fitness director, Joy McIntyre, changes classes so there is a lot of variety from season to season." Open on Sundays from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and weekdays from 6 a.m. into the evening, the center offers a Latin step class; a "pump it up" sculpting class; j-spin (a new offering); boot camp, a cardiovascular exercise program; boot camp for kids, a fitness program; pilates; and yoga.

The "tomorrow" part of the program will be a tour of the 10,000 feet of unfinished space on the second floor. Although its exact use has not yet been determined, it is likely to house meeting rooms, a teen lounge, and perhaps an art studio. Ferbank added that the fitness room is also slated for an expansion once the time is ripe. Right now the ongoing capital campaign, which has already raised $2.3 million of its $3.2 million goal, has slowed considerably in the face of the economic crisis; and Kluger said that the dedication will be purely celebratory, with no solicitations.

For Ferbank, the JCC is really about a blending of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. She sees the book about the founding families as a metaphor of the JCC's community, where past and future are partners. "The book is really a testament to the notion of carrying tradition from generation to generation. Part of that tradition, as reflected in this book, is really a commitment to community," Ferbank said. "The cover is a picture of the front of the JCC, which to these volunteers really symbolizes the stability and the growth and the health of this local Jewish community today."