Dexter teen club to hold open house

DEXTER — Dexter’s Totally Teen Club will hold an open house on Wednesday, May 22, in an effort to share with the public, and especially the parents of area teen-agers, the functions and facility enjoyed by the youths each week.

Established in 1990 when the Fleet Youth Leaders began the club as a youth-designed project to combat teen drug and alcohol abuse, the club has been an after-school haven for young people ages 10-18. The supervised space gives the youths a place to study, to read and to share interests with their peers after school and during the summer months.

The club is free to the youths and their parents.

According to coordinator Glen Weeks, the club is what the youths make it. Weeks and his wife, Ellen, have been running the teen club for 2 1/2 years and work hard to give as much ownership as possible to the youths who participate in the program, they say. A recent addition to the two-room facility, a former storage facility used by the Dexter Maintenance Department, has been cleaned, carpeted and painted, all with donated materials and labor, and with help from the maintenance department.

“The kids worked hard to fix up the new room,” Weeks said this week. “I think they realize how good it would be to have some extra elbow room. I’d love to have more parents come down just to see what’s been done to the place.”

Many improvements have been completed and more are planned, Weeks said. A new bookshelf has recently been built to house donated books, including a set of encyclopedias. A small kitchenette is being constructed for the summer to be used as a learning tool. This area will be used to teach the youths how to prepare simple meals for themselves.

The teen’s club is self-supporting through fund-raisers and donations. The town supplies the space at the town hall and provides maintenance to the facility. The Department of Parks and Recreation covers the costs of special events and T-shirts for the club and helps with summer activities. Trips to places like Peaks-Kenny State Park are operated on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, with parental car pooling and supervision making the trip possible.

“It’s a great way for kids to stay active and do something fun without getting into trouble or costing a lot of money,” Weeks said.

There is a high rate of participation at fund-raising events each month. The main floor of the town hall is used for roller skating three Saturday afternoons a month. The last Friday of the month, the club sponsors a teen dance at the hall. Nonclub members pay $1 to rent and use roller skates and the admission price of the dance is $2. The dance attracts as many as 120 teens to the town hall.

For more information about the club, or how to help out their efforts, contact Weeks at 924-3262 or John Simko, community development director, at 924-7351.