Revitalization of North Side youth center sought

YOUNGSTOWN — The man running the Buckeye Elks Youth Center is looking for the money, human resources and young people needed to bring the facility back to the strong community force it once was.

The Buckeye Elks Youth Center has been a fixture on the city’s North Side for more than 35 years. Buckeye Elks Lodge No. 73 started a fundraising campaign for the facility in 1970 and began building the structure in 1971.

About 2,000 people from the surrounding community toured the Youth Development Center during an open house in January 1973. At that time the center cost about $500,000 to build.

Willie McKinney, longtime Buckeye Elks member and current acting director for the youth center, said when the building first went up, houses occupied by young people and seniors lined the streets all around the North Avenue facility.

“That was the purpose, to give the youth and seniors a nice place to go in the community,” he said. “I would say we averaged about 250 people a week coming through the center then. Now, we just don’t have that many coming in.”