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Lone Pine’s youth center turns from dream to reality |
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Tuesday, 15 September 2009 |
 Healthy Communities recently brought in some of the items donated by local residents and businesses (such as air hockey tables). File photo on top/bottom photo by Charles James Register Staff
9-15-2009 Labor Day weekend wasn’t just another long weekend holiday for a group of Lone Pine Volunteer firefighters and Healthy Communities program coordinator Charles James.
On Sunday, Sept. 6 Fire Captain Dave Daugherty, Jr. put together a volunteer crew that met at Statham Hall to unload the new air hockey table and nine-foot pool table for the youth center soon to open in Lone Pine. The help was welcomed.
“The game tables were very heavy,” James explained.
And it so it is that after months of waiting and overcoming one hurdle after another, the youth centers planned for Independence, Lone Pine and Olancha are finally coming to realization.
Steve Stukas, one of Lone Pine’s most involved and supportive community volunteers, brought the pool table and air hockey table from the coast where he has been working as an area manager for a local cable company. The company’s regional manager was so impressed with the idea of the youth centers that he let Stukas borrow a long utility trailer to move the pool table. The money used to purchase the pool table was being donated by David Haas of Lone Pine.
“The man we purchased the pool table from was almost in tears to see it leave his garage game room,” Stukas said. “His wife insisted they needed the room for storage of their young children’s toys and play equipment.” It’s easy to see why he wasn’t happy. The table is a beautiful nine-foot oak table with a red felt top.
If there is a lesson to be learned from the story about the pool table, it’s that men and women make very different choices. According to humor columnist Dave Barry, “If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base.” The outcome also gives credence to the saying that women get the last word in every argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
Not all the equipment for the youth centers come from the shattered dreams of married men; there are the three new ping pong tables purchased by the Coso Geothermal Plant several months ago for the youth centers which will soon be delivered to join the other equipment already on hand. The youth center in Independence at the American Legion Hall has been open for the past week, although not yet widely known, with a pool table donated by Jaque and Art Hickman of Boulder Creek RV Resort and Owens Valley School Superintendent Joel Hampton donating an air hockey table.
“We still need foosball tables, along with a few other items such as board games and so on,” James said. ”We want to bring these youth centers up to speed as quickly as possible while involving youth in our decision-making. This is about and for them, not us. What types of games and activities do they want? What is it they want to do? That will drive what the youth centers become.”
Healthy Communities is still in the process of buying equipment and making arrangements with volunteers to bring it up from Southern California and the coastal areas. It’s a difficult process, James said. Fortunately much of the equipment being purchased is from money granted by the Donald Slager Sunset Foundation of Bishop, but as James pointed out, the $5,000 grant can only go so far in attempting to equip three community youth centers,
According to James, “The Inyo Council for the Arts has offered support with arts and crafts. We also have $7,000.00 each from Owens Valley Unified School District, Lone Pine Unified School District and the Inyo County Office of Education primarily for staffing, but there are other expenses such as facility use fees and increased insurance costs.” He noted that they are still looking for donations of equipment and money and volunteers to support the youth centers. “A lot of people have stepped up to help. Let’s hope more are willing as well.”
For more information on the youth center in Independence, call Paul Fretheim at 878-9115. For more information about the youth centers in Lone Pine and Olancha, contact Program Coordinator Charles James with Healthy Communities at 876-1011.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 08 October 2009 )
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