South Dakota town creates a new youth hangout

Tyndall Center is Center of Attention

by Randy Dockendorf

November 20, 2007 | Yankton Daily Press | Tyndall, South Dakota

 

Air hockey is one of the many activities available at "Cavalier Corner," a youth center that opened in Tyndall in September. The center was established with local funds as well as a USDA grant after such a facility was cited as a major need in a community survey. Tara Schumacher

"We had no bowling alley, and a lot of times they were just hanging out (at the station)," she said. "Then the idea of a youth center came up, and people were excited about it."

The youth center has become more than just an idea -- it's become a reality.

"This project has been a year in the making. We opened the Cavalier Corner' on Sept. 19, in time for homecoming," said Janet Wagner, a Bon Homme schoolteacher and the youth center's coordinator.

The project received a major boost when the City of Tyndall received a package of nearly $73,000 to purchase a building and renovate it for a youth center.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development in South Dakota awarded the $61,800 loan and $10,900 grant.

While the youth center is located in Tyndall, it welcomes young people from Tabor and Springfield -- which join Tyndall as part of the Bon Homme school district -- as well as other surrounding communities, the center's organizers said.

"The youth center is a wonderful asset to the community. It provides a place for the children to go after school and on non-school days, which is great for them as well as their parents," Wagner said.

Tyndall previously had a place known as the Cavalier Center, named after the Bon Homme High School mascot, Wagner said. The center operated during the 1990s in the basement of a downtown building, she said.

The center featured a weight room and fitness equipment, Wagner said. "It closed around 2000 and 2001, and then there was nothing," she said.

The situation didn't change much until the past year, when Tyndall was selected for the USDA "Horizons" program, Wagner said. The program targets communities with high poverty rates, she said.

"You don't apply for the Horizons program; you are chosen," she said. "We were targeted for the Horizons project because Tyndall has a 17.2 percent poverty rate, based on the census."

The youth center came out of Horizon's larger effort to identify community needs through meetings and surveys, said Bon Homme teacher Chad Jodozi.

In addition, a "Leadership Plenty" course taught skills to the public, said Jodozi, who serves on the youth center board.

"The Leadership Plenty' program teaches little steps to be a leader," he said. "There are plenty of good ideas out there. But with Leadership Plenty, we learn how to use the resources we have but don't hook into them."

The process has drawn a broad range of people into the process, which creates more support for things like the youth center, said Judy Mace of the Horizons Steering Committee.

"One of the goals was to have study circles where people stated what they wanted," she said. "Horizons provided guidance and brought young people into the discussion."

Students actively gave their opinions on what was important for Tyndall, said Bon Homme eighth grader Kara Juhnke.

"Emily (Roberson) came up to school with surveys," Juhnke said. "People said they wanted a youth center, and they wanted things like pool tables and different kinds of food."

Young people showed they wanted something constructive for themselves, Jodozi said. However, that need was recognized by all age groups, he said.

"The youth center arose as a major need on the community surveys," he said.

The survey results smashed one stereotype, Wagner said. "We found the senior citizens were very supportive of something for the young people," she said.

But the community wanted the youth center to become more than just another place to hang out, Wagner said.

"We wanted to develop an alternative for kids who had nothing to do," she said. "It gives younger kids a place to go."

An existing building on Main Street was purchased and renovated to meet social and recreational needs. A study room includes a library with textbooks used in grades 6-12. A computer lab will allow students to research, write papers and search colleges.

"The (Bon Homme) school gave us middle school and high school textbooks so kids can come here and study," Wagner said. "We have a tutor and aide, and we would like to put in four tabletop and two laptop wireless computers."

Recreational offerings include pool tables, foosball tables, air hockey, pinball and other arcade games, a big-screen television and a snack bar whose proceeds help pay employees' wages. Local volunteers staff the center. Hours of operation will be mainly evenings and weekends.

"Right now, we are open at 4 p.m. every day but Sunday," Wagner said. "It's open from 4-7 p.m. school nights and 4-11 p.m. non-school nights."

While community desire was one thing, finding the needed money was another, Wagner said. The USDA funding helped cover $15,000 for remodeling the building and making it handicapped accessible, she said.

The building formerly housed the Chevrolet dealership, Wagner said. The garage portion was in turn bought by a local contractor, which reduced the overall cost of purchasing the building, she said.

The youth center has benefited from other contributions, Wagner said. The city agreed to pay for the electricity, water and sewer. Both cash and in-kind donations from sources in and outside Tyndall have covered or offset costs, she said.

Tyndall resident William Crews said he found unexpected help for remodeling.

"I needed people to insulate the wall, and I found six people were here to help," he said. "There has been a lot of help from people in the community."

Besides the three employees, the center has extensively used volunteers, Wagner said.

"We need adult supervision. We don't want this to be a turnkey operation," she said. "We have had everywhere from 6 to 50 people at the center at one time."

Roberson, who serves on the youth center's board, said more young people are learning about the facility.

"People are hanging out with their friends," she said. "We have a pool table, and that's pretty good. We would like to have computers with Internet access."

Young people would not be the only ones benefiting from a computer lab with Internet access, Crews said.

"This ties in to the poverty part of this," he said. "We would like to have a computer with Internet access, so there could be ongoing education of kind. We could advertise courses. Our library doesn't have Internet access, so this (youth center) could be used at different times of the day by people from the community."

The youth center has done well in its first two months and has the potential for even more, said employee Denise Cravens.

"I think it's going good so far," she said. "The word is getting out. The biggest way of getting support is knowing what they want."

Cravens thinks the center could attract older students in the future as they learn more about the facility.

"There might be a shift in the ages of those who use it," she said. "Right now, it's more middle school. The high schoolers come in, get food and leave. They're not used to this yet (as a gathering place)."

The emphasis needs to remain on keeping the center fun, inexpensive and safe, Crews said. "We want to make this as safe an environment as possible," he said.

Cravens agreed. "The kids like it, and it's a safe place. They're not on the streets running around," she said.

While the initial success has been good, the youth center can't rest on its laurels, Crews said. "If it stays the same, it will get stagnant. We need forward movement," he said.

Wagner expressed optimism that the youth center has the ingredients for success.

And it has the young people's support, Jodozi added.

"Why will this work? Because it's something that's theirs," he said.

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