Sneak peek at YFC centre: A place to play, a place to pray

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This article was published 09/12/2011 (5387 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Young Tony Hawks will soon be able to catch air even in winter while nearby teenage Sir Edmund Hillarys will be able to dream of climbing Mount Everest.

And it will all happen on the site of a former vacant lot at Main Street and Higgins Avenue once frequented by street people and drug dealers.

Dignitaries will take part in a ribbon-cutting for the $13.6-million Youth for Christ building today, but hundreds of youths will have to wait until Jan. 7 for the Christian youth centre’s official opening.

While construction workers worked feverishly, YFC’s Keith Tarry said everyone is excited to be at the end of a 10-year journey to find a new home for the centre.

“This will bring together programs that have been spread out until now,” Tarry said on Thursday.

“But we never dreamed of having a facility quite so large. We’ve been looking for 10 years.

“Usually we were looking for an old warehouse or something. But we could not find a facility that would work.”

The site was chosen with the help of the city’s CentreVenture.

And, more than a year after the first shovels went into the ground — and after enduring controversy about government funding and religious affiliation — the 53,000-square-foot centre, which includes a gym, climbing wall, skateboard park and dance studios, will open.

During a tour of the facility, Tarry said hundreds of youths aged 12 to 18 are just a month away from pouring into the building. Each will need to have an application and waiver signed by their parents.

“We see 5,000 young people now and our goal is by 2015 to reach 10,000,” he said.

“Youth come from across the city to our site in Elmwood now, but because we’re in Elmwood people think it’s only youth from Elmwood. We’re not. We are a city-based outreach program. They come from Charleswood to St. James to North Kildonan.

“This is central and easy to get to by bus.”

One of the things that will bring youth through the doors is the centre’s mammoth indoor skateboard park. It looks about the same size as the park at The Forks and the similarity does not end there.

“The same company that designed The Forks’ skateboard park designed this one,” Tarry said.

“This is the only indoor skateboard park in Canada that has a bowl.”

Elsewhere in the building are large climbing walls for wannabe mountain climbers. The walls — both an indoor one and an outdoor one — are taller than the three-storey building.

Tarry said youths will receive instruction in climbing geared towards their experience and abilities. He said the outdoor wall, right at the corner of Main and Higgins, will have all of its climbing equipment taken down when it’s not in operation so passersby can’t try scaling it after hours.

“We’re hoping kids will get into this sport,” Tarry said.

“It’s a sport where everybody cheers each other on. It’s very supportive.”

There are three soundproof rooms with mirrors on one wall and a rubberized floor for the site’s Masterworks dance classes. Currently, 200 youth are learning dances, including ballet, hip-hop, and breakdancing.

There will also be areas to create art, edit videos, watch movies and television shows, shoot a round of pool, play table tennis or get a bite to eat or drink.

The centre also has a large gymnasium and weight room.

But the facility is more than a place just for youth to have fun.

The building also houses the Turning Point Counselling Service, which will offer families marriage counselling and other support.

It will also host meetings, banquets and high school courses.

Tarry said the organization will not hide its Christian beliefs.

“It is a Christian place. You can see it in our name. It is designed to have a constructive alternative. The youth can only come here with their parents’ permission and they come knowing we are a Christian centre.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca