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Milton Area Youth Center seeks community support

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

Milton Middle School seventh grader Jacob Geske, 12, plays a game of ping pong with classmate Gabe Richardson (not pictured) at the Milton Area Youth Center.

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

Milton Middle School seventh graders Amy Johnson, left, and Gabby Castellanos use the Milton Area Youth Center wireless to access Facebook on their iPads.

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

The computer room is a popular spot at the Milton Area Youth Center.

MILTON — He’s a bully sometimes.

He picks on other kids. He makes cruel comments. It’s gotten the eighth-grade boy kicked out of the Milton Area Youth Center more than once.

When they must ask him to leave, the youth center’s staff reminds the boy of the rules: Visitors must show each other kindness and respect. Then they invite him to come back tomorrow.

Every time he’s asked to leave, the boy cries. But he always comes back.

Director Pamela Thomas sees how the faith-based after-school youth center in Old Main at the former Milton College is making a difference for just one boy. He’s coming along slowly, but surely.

“It’s amazing. He looks you in the eye. He smiles. He’s starting to get along with kids. He’s relating to mentors. It’s just so cool,” Thomas said.

When the youth center opened a year ago, it served about 20 students daily. Now the center mentors, tutors, entertains and feeds with a snack at least 40 junior high students from 3 to 6 p.m. every weekday.

So far, the center runs almost totally on help from dozens of local volunteers and mentors who donate their time, goods and money. Thomas said the community has helped get the center on its feet, but it’s gotten harder to move forward.

“We do have community support. It’s been overwhelming,” Thomas said. “But at this point, we’re living month-to-month. That’s not a comfortable state for a business or an individual or anybody.”

The center filed last August for its 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation. In November, officials with the Internal Revenue Service told the center it was awarded nonprofit status. However, as of early this week, the center had not received official documentation.

On Wednesday, a caseworker with the IRS told the center it could be receiving that paperwork this week.

It can’t come soon enough. Thomas said the center has been in an uncomfortable holding pattern. Without official nonprofit status it can’t apply for grant funding, which, outside of private donations, is one of only a few ways to fuel operations at the youth center.

Until now, student volunteers from the high school and The Gathering Place in Milton have volunteered services and help to create activities. Local merchants and residents have supplied donated food to the center.

But as the number of students the center serves grows, so does the need for new activities, programs and donations, Thomas said. It all costs money—especially the food.

“Sometimes, I look in the pantry, we have pudding, day-old pound cake and cans of fruit salad. It’s like, OK, what can we make today?” Thomas said.

With nonprofit designation, the youth center could apply for grants to offset the cost of food for nutrition programs and fuel more substantial after-school activities, Thomas said.

Thomas, who has past experience as a nonprofit consultant, was named the center’s director last year. Since then, Thomas said, residents, church groups and Milton’s school district and police department have all helped to buoy the youth center.

The center’s fund development committee has launched several fundraising campaigns, including a program that allows people to individually sponsor youths at the center. People have responded well to those programs, Thomas said.

She hopes that even as the center moves into full nonprofit status, the community will continue to offer support.

“We’re up and running, but we’re just not to a place where we’ve become an established nonprofit. We’re in our adolescence,” Thomas said.