Teen center faces a federal cut
By Elizabeth Billips Associate Editor

Dondrae Bush and Weylin Hodge talk in front of the teen center at Davis Park. The pair plans to mentor younger teens there this summer, but federal cutbacks could kill the program.

Waynesboro's first teen center has taken a kidney punch.

It was set to open next month with the backing of a three-year, $248,691 federal abstinence grant.

But organizers at Burke Community Partnership (BCP) just learned that Congress pulled the program from their budget.

"We wrote this grant on the basis of there not being anything for kids to do in Burke County," BCP executive director Deena Sams said after hearing the bad news. "The center isn't the answer to all our problems, but it's a start - a place that will get kids off the street and give them something positive to do with all their idle time."

BCP staff members are disappointed, but undaunted.

They'll open the center anyway "on a wing and a prayer."

***

Sams unlocks the door to the recently renovated Davis Park center and walks through the activity room with BCP board member Beaver Sapp.

They watch through the window as more than a dozen small children play with rocks and sticks. The ground is covered with broken glass, and a barefoot baby follows behind in a diaper so full it sags past her knees.

"There's not a parent anywhere around," Sams says as she walks outside to tell the oldest child, a second grader, to get the baby some shoes. "That's what we're dealing with - children raising themselves."

***

The center sits smack in the middle of one of Waynesboro's worst crime and drug areas.

"We have our own safety concerns, but this is where we need to be," Sams said. "These are the kids who need us the most."

Having taken down some of Richmond County's toughest gang leaders, Lt. Scott Peebles agrees.

He visited Waynesboro in December, detailing Augusta's problems and warning Waynesboro residents that it's coming here.

"The biggest thing you can do as a community is develop programs to take children in, encircle them and protect them," he said, describing 5- year-olds who cruise the projects on bicycles and blow whistles to warn drug dealers of approaching patrol cars. "The gangs understand the value of our youth ... it's too bad we don't."

Sams sees trouble ahead too. At a recent "Teens Let's Talk," she asked and they owned up.

"The teenagers told us that when they get bored, they have sex, use drugs and fight each other as forms of entertainment," she said. "This center is in all of our best interests."

***

Teenagers Dondrae Bush, 18, and Weylin Hodge, 15, are the exception.

They mill around the center, scoping out where the ping pong tables and computer centers will go.

They're both in BCP's teen leadership group, and they plan to serve as mentors at the teen center.

"There's nothing to do around here," Dondrae says. "When school gets out teenagers get bored. That's probably why they stay in trouble."

His only other summer hangout is the recreation department gym where he likes to shoot hoops in the afternoons.

He's lucky.

The gym's too far away for his friends who don't have cars.

***

With those less lucky teens on her mind, Sams says her decision to move forward has a lot to do with summer vacation and the fact that BCP has plunged $60,000 into the program to date.

While the City of Waynesboro footed the bill for the renovations, BCP has been operating a makeshift center through their Sixth Street office for the past eight months and has already purchased appliances, furniture and recreation equipment for the new building.

"You're never really guaranteed these grants," Sams said, hoping her May 26 meeting with Congressman John Barrow will be productive. "So much comes down to politics."

In the meantime, Sams said BCP will forge on, relying on private donations and community volunteers.

The center will be open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will serve up to 250 teens through a variety of classes, programs and chaperoned free time.

BCP staff members say they'll keep it open as long as they can pay the bills.

"Too much has gone into this to just see the dream shattered," Sams said. "We're just praying someone will step up and help keep it alive."