The manager’s office at the Morgan Hill teen center is
constantly under invasion. Open the door during after-school hours,
and the closet-sized room is overwhelmed by the sounds of keyboards
clicking, billiard balls breaking, Ping-Pong paddles rapping and
children laughing.
The manager’s office at the Morgan Hill teen center is constantly under invasion. Open the door during after-school hours, and the closet-sized room is overwhelmed by the sounds of keyboards clicking, billiard balls breaking, Ping-Pong paddles rapping and children laughing.
Mary Lopez, a teen specialist at the center, did her best to hold a private conversation here Friday, March 13. Every five minutes, a bright young face would pop through the doorway to ask for something.
“It’s a zoo here on Friday nights,” Lopez said. “This is our busiest night during the week.”
And it’s only getting busier.
Since joining the teen center’s three-person staff nearly seven months ago, Lopez has watched the number of kids who show up increase more and more.
“It’s kind of taken off,” she said. “It started slow, but I think kids are getting the word out about it. We have about 800 entries per month.”
Located inside the Morgan Hill Centennial Recreation Center, the teen center opened three years ago as a place for youths to socialize in a productive way. They can enjoy an assortment of table games, like air hockey, foosball, and even play Xbox or browse the Internet, all for free.
The teen center’s popularity is growing – and not because of the recession.
“I just come here because my friends have been coming here for a while,” said Isaac Camarillo, 15, a student at Live Oak High School. “I come here every other day when I don’t have sports. I like the pool tables and MySpace.”
Britton Middle School seventh-grader Elisha Johnson, 11, likened the teen center to the Boys & Girls Club he used to go to before he and his family moved from San Jose to Morgan Hill.
“Me and my friends come straight here after school,” he said.
What if it wasn’t free to attend?
“I would still probably go, but maybe not as often,” Johnson added. “It’s just a place where we can hang out together and have fun.”
The teen center serves a greater purpose, though, Lopez said.
“This is to give them a healthy outlet instead of being out on the street, or hanging out in the wrong neighborhoods or getting into activities that aren’t part of a healthy lifestyle,” she said.
The center offers a self-explanatory program called Chill Out and Express Your Thoughts, plus confidence-building workshops and tutoring. Community Solutions and Morgan Hill Police Department representatives stop by to give awareness presentations regarding gangs and Internet safety.
The staff is planning a seminar on resume building.
“What ever the kids want to learn about or do, we want to help them,” said Lopez, who grew up in Gilroy. “The goal is to do anything we can to make this generation better than the one before them.”
The teen center awards good behavior. Lopez recalled a young girl, Annalina DiMaggio, who accidentally broke a pool stick. When DiMaggio overheard Lopez telling her superiors about the unsolved incident, DiMaggio came forward.
“She said, ‘I was the one that broke it,'” Lopez said. “Her family bought a new pool stick and a bunch of other stuff – Ping-Pong paddles, balls, a new net – on their own. (Annalina) went beyond her call to do what was right.”
DiMaggio was presented with a Certificate of Integrity.
“Kids like her can be role models for other kids,” Lopez added. “It’s good to have that. We have kids here from all kinds of backgrounds. They come together and bridge their gaps.
“When you play and communicate with someone, pretty soon they impact you.”
Lopez wishes all kids could have a place like the teen center. She conjured a less heart-warming story she heard this month at a conference.
A kid from San Jose received a 35-year prison sentence for a murder he perpetrated at age 16. When asked what could have been done to prevent him from committing the crime, he said he would have listened to his uncle.
“The day before, his uncle told him to go out for sports,” Lopez said. “It would have impacted that kid to be more social. It could have saved him.”
Many have said the city should not have spent so much money to build the complex. The CRC cost roughly $28 million to build. The teen center alone has a $25,000 payroll and $12,000 annual budget.
Few, however, would argue if the money has gone to good use.
“The teens need a place to go, and we have given them a place to provide for them,” Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate said. “Has it been worth it? Absolutely.”
The center will start offering field trips in summer – around the same time it opens its new skate park in June.
“Any time you have kids doing something other than hanging out on the street, it’s a good cause,” Police Chief Bruce Cumming said. “It’s definitely a good cause.”
Lopez and her peers hope even more money gets put into the teen center.
“The Boys & Girls Club I went to was bigger and had more stuff, like a big outside place,” Johnson said. “We used to play capture the flag, football, dodgeball – it’d be cool if we had that. This place could be even better.”
