• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Community Center Fills Need in Eagle: Find Art and Parenting Classes, Activities for Teens

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Kathleen Kreller, The Idaho Statesman, Boise, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Dec. 27--EAGLE -- Eagle's Landing Community Center has been up and running for about a year now, offering teens a place of their own, feeding hungry families, counseling parents and giving the arts a place to thrive.

The center is filling a void in the quickly growing area, which has not had a community center. Eagle has grown from around 3,300 people in 1990 to more than 18,400 today.

Landing staff member Rickard Bjerkander looks like an imposing cross between Mr. Clean and a Nordic heavy metal rocker. He is a soft-spoken man with patience for teenagers and eardrum-bursting alternative rock. Bjerkander runs the teen program.

The teen center, which opened in June, is just one part of the Landing Community Center. The community center houses a variety of services, from fine arts programs to a foodbank. The center is funded, in part, from a portion of profits from the Rembrandt's Coffee House around the corner and from grant money and donations.

The center, which is housed in a converted fire station on State Street west of Eagle Road, is the brainchild of a local couple, Mark and Jeanette Priddy. The center's goal is to help everyone from single parents to seniors and give them opportunities to help others, said Mark Priddy, who operates Rembrandt's.

On a rainy Friday afternoon, Bjerkander and staff member Nate Hamlin played Ping-Pong, chatted and meted out apple cider to a group of rambunctious teens. The kids are in their space; permanent marker signatures along the walls, the band "Korn" playing in the background, a big screen television, overstuffed comfy furniture and video games.

Cody Moritz, 11, lives around the corner from the teen center.

"I come here every day. All my friends come here and I can invite them here," Moritz said.

What's surprising, Bjerkander said, is that the kids tend to eschew video games and ping pong for "deep" conversations. The teens and staff talk about choices, he said.

"It's surprising to me a little bit how well the teens engage," Bjerkander said. "It's been incredible just to be a part of this process."

Keegan See, 14, said having the chance chat with staff members and other kids keeps him coming back to the teen center. "I like to talk and play pool. I like to play Ping-Pong with Nate."

The community is getting involved, too. The Ada County Sheriff's Office, which serves as Eagle's city police, has sent officers over. The Eagle Fire Department also showed up to spend the day with kids, Bjerkander said.

"It seems like we are here to stay," Bjerkander said. "I see in the future more programs being added."

Helping teens who need a place of their own after school is just one mission of the Landing Community Center. The center offers parenting classes and family support groups, neighborhood emergency relief, computer classes, after-school tutoring and dance and visual arts lessons. Some programs, like the teen center, are free.

The philosophy behind the center and Rembrandt's Coffee House is a concept Priddy refers to as "social entrepreneurship."

For example, the community center and coffee house hosted a community barbecue to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The old fire station and an adjacent modular building house the Landing's programs.

The Landing Family Institute offers course curriculum and public workshops like, "Positive Discipline for Parents and Providers." The Eagle Performing Arts Center provides professional instruction in dance.

-----

Copyright (c) 2005, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

NYSE:STT,

Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

More News in this Category