Dundee Twp. Teen Center offers 'more opportunities' at new location

Sixteen-year-old Kajira Blunt has big goals for her future.

As a sophomore at Dundee-Crown High School, she wants to do well in school, attend Columbia College Chicago - her "dream college" - and eventually become a professional singer.

And she's on the right track, she said, thanks to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dundee Township's Teen Center, which gives high school students a place to do homework and participate in activities after school.

Now at the Teen Center's new location in the Dundee Township Park District's Rakow Fitness Center in Carpentersville, Blunt said, she is also able to practice singing on a stage in front of her peers.

"I like that we get a lot of opportunities here. We get experience for careers that we want to do, and we get the confidence to get going," Blunt said. "This is going to help me get where I want to be in life."

In a partnership with the park district, the Teen Center earlier this month moved from a smaller, more secluded building on Wakefield Drive to two large rooms within the Rakow Center.

There, club members are also allowed to use the rest of the center's facilities, including the fitness center, the gym, racquetball and wallyball courts, a kitchen area and a stage, said Curt McReynolds, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dundee Township.

For many of the Teen Center's members, he said, this is the first time they'll have access to these types of resources.

"A lot of the kids we serve are not the traditional park district users," he said. "And we're able to bring kids to the building that the park district might otherwise not be able to reach. ... I think where they struggle is where our bread and butter is - demographically challenged and at-risk teens."

The club also takes those students on college visits and offers career, wellness and other programs, McReynolds said.

Last year, the park district decided to end its day care program for financial reasons, leaving four rooms within the Rakow Center available, Executive Director Tom Mammoser said. Officials agreed to rent two of the rooms to the Teen Center for about $4,000 per year to cover utility and general maintenance costs, he said.

Additionally, the park district is providing the funds for the Teen Center to have a fitness instructor, who will work with small groups of students each day, said Mike Berger, Boys & Girls Clubs vice president of operations. The hope, he said, is that the club will be able to get other funding sources to continue those types of programs.

"It's great that we're able to give teenagers a place to hang out, a place where they can go and relax within the offerings of the Boys & Girls Clubs," Mammoser said. "It's a very well-rounded, nationally established programs that we're able to offer teenagers."

Ka Lyn McGee, 16, a sophomore at Dundee-Crown, said the new Teen Center location allows for more structure, more personal space and more opportunities.

"It's a good place to go to stay out of trouble," she said.

After starting the club in 1997 with the village of Carpentersville, the park district has been a long-standing partner of the Boys & Girls Clubs, Mammoser said. It has since grown into several different programs for kids of all ages.

Between 16 and 20 teens typically attend the Teen Center each day. By the end of the school year, Berger said, Boys & Girls Clubs staff hope to draw 45 to 50 students daily.

"It's really cool for the Teen Center to have access to this building, and it's neat for our program to evolve like that," McReynolds said. "We have plans to hopefully reach out to more kids and grow the program now that we have more space. It's exciting for us."