With a prayer on their lips and a song in their hearts, the members of the Bayonne Youth Center celebrated on Feb. 25 the reopening and rededication of their building after it had been closed for eight months for repairs.
Dwayne Wright, who serves as president of the Youth Center, said the $80,000 cost for repairs came from federal Community Development Block Grants.
“We had some major problems,” he said. “The floor was a wreck. We had to put a French drain and a sump pump in the basement to handle the flooding. We had a number of water leaks. Then we found out we had an old oil tank that had been there for about 40 years and it still had liquid in it. That had to be removed, and replace the concrete outside. We also replaced the room upstairs.”
He said access to the federal money to make the repairs was “a real blessing,” which allowed the center to fix problems it could not otherwise have fixed.
“We’re just so grateful to be back open again and to help the kids,” he said.
While he said the center’s mission is to help kids who are struggling, the doors are open to all the kids in the community as a resource.
Margaret Hamiel has been with the Youth Center in various capacities for nearly 50 years and is one of the people who oversees the Youth Center’s after-school programs.
“Margaret is a really great resource,” Wright said. “The program helps find a place for kids to keep them off the streets.”
“The program helps find a place for kids to keep them off the streets.” – Dwayne Wright
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The center usually opens at 3 p.m., giving kids a place to go after school to do their homework or to hang out with friends. Traditionally on Fridays, the center provides a Bible reading session.
One side of the room has a bank of computers for kids to use. A few years ago, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey presented the center with a check that would cover the cost of connecting the center’s computers to the Internet. The computers were donated several years ago by PSE&G and set up at the center by the staff of Networking Café. The computers serve youth and adult populations. Students use the computers after school for homework, while adults use them for a typing class once a week.
Founded by Sabra Jackson, the center opened at another location in 1945, and was relocated to Kennedy Boulevard and 22nd Street in the mid-1980s after the property was bequeathed to the center. An annual membership drive helps provide funds.
Wright said that with the center open again, they are taking applications for its summer program. Those interested can get more information at the center at 534 Kennedy Blvd.
Wright said the center is particularly useful to families with working parents or single parent families, where parents have to work and kids need a place to go.
“We want to help them as much as we can, and give back to the community after all the community has given to us,” Wright said.
Along one wall, a bulletin board boasts pictures of Pres. Barack Obama, a poster with all the presidents, and photos of past presidents who have served at the center since its inception.
At the ceremony, the Rev. H. Gene Sykes, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church, gave a prayer thanking God for all the years the center has been allowed to help people in Bayonne, all the lives that have been touched, and all the meals that the center has provided.
“We look to a brighter new future,” he said.
Mayor Mark Smith addressed the gathering of parents and Youth Center supporters.
“We’re here to rededicate the Bayonne Youth Center. But it’s more than a rededication of bricks and mortar; it is a rededication of services to the community,” Smith said. “When I look around to look at the improvements made, I see pictures of the leaders of the United States of America, and then you see the leaders of our community, many of whom are sitting here and many whose pictures on our the walls. The commitment by you folks and those of the people on the wall is what has made the difference to the life of this community since 1945.”
He said applications for additional funds have been submitted for this year, and that additional work will be done in the future.
“We have more work to do and we’re going to do it together because it is important work,” Smith said.