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Buckeye center to sponsor party
Bicycles, DVDs, toys and gift certificates will be given away as prizes.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Buckeye Neighborhood Youth Center will kick off its reopening to area young people with a free Christmas party open to the public.
Troy Hunter, youth center program director, said the center is inviting area youths to the facility at 4211‚Ñ2 North Ave. beginning at 5 p.m. Monday to take free pictures with Santa. A Christmas party will follow the pictures beginning at 6 p.m.
Hunter said center representatives will be giving away at least six bicycles, DVDs, gift certificates and various toys during games and drawings at the party.
All those in attendance also will receive free food, entertainment from local groups, and a presentation by the East High School line dancers.
“This is great because we have a whole community of support. A lot of businesses have stepped in and helped out, and that is exactly what we wanted. Those things donated to us will be given as prizes at the party,” Hunter said.
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 fund-raising 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.
Hunter said the center had been closed for several years to youth activities for various reasons but began the process of reopening its doors to young people this past summer.
“It may not seem like the center was closed because it has always been open to rentals, but as far as getting youth programs back up and running, that is what we are doing now,” Hunter said.
Willie McKinney, longtime Buckeye Elks member, in 2008 started a campaign to get the youth center up and running again. McKinney remembers when the building first went up, houses occupied by young people and seniors lined the streets all around the North Avenue facility. Those people, he said, would flock to the center on a daily basis.
Hunter said the facility is now open daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. He said it will be offering after-school programs, mentor programs, basketball tournaments, drum corps, drill teams and other seasonal activities.
Hunter said having the doors to the center open again to young people is good for the entire community.
“This is very important for the community because it gives the young people some place to go and expend energy,” Hunter said. “We don’t want them out in the street because we all know they get into trouble in the street. We want to be a beacon of hope to the community.”