COEUR d'ALENE - So many good things in such a short window it's hard to remember them all in order.

Three years passes in a flash.

Tours, visits, an added parking level, even a couple of television crews have broadcast live inside the Kroc Community Center off Golf Course Road in Coeur d'Alene.

But one memory sticks out for Maj. John Chamness, Kroc director, and it's when he spoke to his staff through the community's center public address system in May of 2009, moments before the 123,000-square-foot facility's doors opened to the public.

It was minutes before 5 a.m. that day, a Monday, and he thanked the staff for their hard work getting the center ready, and prayed for everyone.

"And I said, 'here we go,'" Chamness recalled. "And the doors opened and the people started flooding in."

Three years and 16,000 members later, Chamness is moving on.

He and wife Maj. Lani Chamness will be reporting in June to new positions as the Divisional Commanders of the Hawaii and Pacific Island Division of The Salvation Army.

The promotion came Thursday, and the center announced it Tuesday.

Chamness called it an exciting opportunity. Lani Chamness is from Hawaii and the couple's three children were born there. But it's bittersweet, he added, since he has been a part of The Salvation Army Kroc Center in Coeur d'Alene since 2006, before it was built.

"In the six years that we have lived in Coeur d'Alene, it has truly become our home," Chamness said, in the prepared statement. "We are sad to leave this wonderful community that worked hard to turn their dream of a community center into a reality that is 16,000 members strong."

In a press release announcing the couple's upcoming departure, they were recognized for spearheading the planning and construction of the building. They have overseen fundraising, the planning of Kroc Church, the creation of the Advisory Board and more.

"It's not just been the Kroc Center, it's been the community at large that's made this such a great place," Chamness said Wednesday. "I think it's exceeded everyone's wildest expectation. I don't know if any community center out there is experiencing what they're experiencing here."

The Kroc Center's popularity locally is the main reason 17 different centers across the nation have visited and toured, and a couple of visiting cities brought news crews with them to relay the message from inside the center back home. It's why Chamness was invited to speak in January to more than 100 community centers in Canada.

His favorite part has been seeing the different people come together at the facility to take part in a variety of different activities, from sports to educational classes to church services.

"There's been a lot that's gone on in the last couple of years, it's hard to remember all these amazing things," he said. "It's flown by."

But he remembers thanking his staff before the center opened and the people flooding in like they still do today.