YMCA Centers in Beverly Offer Teens 'a great place to be'
The Salem News
Rebecca Schoonmaker
4/1/2005
Beverly- It's 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. School is out for the weekend. There's no homework tonight, no alarm clock in the morning. Where to go, what to do? The possibilities seem endless for a kid. But for many local middle and high school students, the choice is easy.
When school closes, the Beverly YMCA teen centers open their doors and are a bustle of activity in the afternoons and evenings.
One in three Beverly children takes part in the YMCA's youth programs, said Greater Beverly YMCA director Chris Lovasco, and hundreds of them are teens.
Why the YMCA? For Beverly resident Kevin Page, 19, the answer is simple.
"It's a place to be," he said.
Page visits the YMCA almost daily after classes at North Shore Community College to work out or play basketball with friends.
And this is exactly what the directors of the Beverly YMCA want to offer.
"(The centers) provide an opportunity for all teens to have a safe place to come," said teen director Ryan Allen.
The Y's youth facilities include the McPherson center on McPherson Drive and the Sterling Center and new Douglas Stephens Center both located on Essex Street. The newest building opened last October and is equipped with two full-sized gymnasiums and a 23-by-28 foot climbing wall.
"It's a great place to be," said Beverly High School junior Chad Newman, 17. "Kids have fun here. It's a nice atmosphere."
This new center is an extention of the Greater Beverly YMCA's teen program at the McPherson Youth Center, which includes a pool and skate park and also provides a variety of activities that expand beyond athletics.
But the sports programs are currently generating the most interest. The biggest draws are the climbing wall, the skate park and the open gym hours.
Newman takes advantage of the open gym about four times a week, strictly to play basketball. He estimates that between 50 and 60 kids are usually doing the same.
"If you build a gymnasium, they will come," Lovasco said.
Twelve-year-old Michael Sharamitaro got word of the climbing wall all the way in Gloucester and stopped by last Friday to try it out.
Despite the sunny afternoon outside, more than 20 kids were waiting in line inside for their shot at the Y's impressive climbing wall.
"There are no rock walls in Gloucester," Sharamitaro explained, scoping out his plan of attack on the vertical wall. "This one's cool. It's big, and it's a challenge."
Sharamitaro said the biggest challenge about the wall is the section that is topped with an overhang, which he attempted but didn't conquer on his first try. However, he had no intention of letting the wall get the better of him; he plans on returning to Beverly in the near future with a group of friends to tackle the overhang again.
Lovasco said he hopes the center will soon attract more teens with their nonathletic programs as well.
"You want kids of all interests to feel like there is something here for them," Lovasco said. "The goal is to attract a real cross-section of Beverly teens. We don't want one kind of teen; we want all kinds of teens."
"People may think of the Y as just a place for sports," added Allen.
At the McPherson Center, kids can learn to cook, take guitar lessons, or join a baby-sitting class to name just a few options.
"We want to reach as many kids as possible," Allen said.
One relatively new activity that has gained a lot of popularity since it started are the middle school dances, held every other week at the Douglas Stephens Center. Lovasco said up to 300 kids will attend in one evening.
The purpose of the youth programs, Lovasco said, is to provide opportunities for kids that will direct them away from negative influences and activities.
Page said if he weren't at the YMCA, he'd be doing something a lot less productive, although he doesn't suspect he's be getting into trouble.
"I'd probably be sitting at home, driving around, spending money," he said.
Lovasco feels that giving teens someone to look up to is the key.
"Our biggest philosophy is that kids have positive role models," he said. "When they're on teams or in clubs, they have positive role models they can reach out to."
Many of these role models are teens themselves, working at the Y as coaches, mentors and instructors.
The majority of youths participating in YMCA programs are between the ages of 12 and 15. The Y focuses on being open during key hours for students, offering open-gym hours and organized activities after school each weekday and events on Friday and Saturday nights.
Organizers agree that reaching out to older teens is a bit more difficult, particularly because they tend to be "more defined in their interests," Allen said.
In an effort to attract teen membership, YMCA employees visit local school or other teen hangouts to find out what would make for a productive youth program. Allen said he has visited the middle school cafeteria so many times that the students recognize him and will start up a conversation themselves.
"I could try to plan what teens want," Lavasco said, "but what you do is listen to them, ask them what they like."
This method seems to work for the Y; one event the directors and students came up with together was a dogeball tournament, partially inspired by the 2004 movie "Dodgeball."
This coed tournament is serious business. Equipped with matching headbands, each team competes on Saturday night at the Douglas Stephens Center's new gyms for eight weeks in hopes of advancing to the playoffs.
Dodgeball began in late February and is seeing a fair amount of success, said Allen, who hopes that by word of mouth, interest will spread.
A $1 million donation from the Cummings Center allowed for the construction of the Douglas Stephens Center last year. The teen facility shares the building with the YMCA Children's Enrichment Center for infants and preschoolers.
Lavasco noted that many children who start out in Y-related activities tend to stay with the organization. Once they grow out of the programs at the Sterling Center, they can move next door.
"We have programs for everyone from 6 months old to high school," Lovasco said. "A lot of kids are growing up in a facility with a teen center next door."
Through fund raising and donations, the Y hopes to finish off the interior of the Douglas Stephens Center, which will include a teen "hangout," described Allen, a lounge area near the entrance with a television and computers.
"We're very happy with the progress we've made so far, but there's so much more we can do," Locasco said. "And we'll do it."
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