Youth center to host first event on New Year’s Eve
Canonsburg’s first youth center will be open to the public in 2015, right after ringing in the New Year with pizza, a dodgeball tournament and bonfire.
The New Year’s Eve event, open to students in sixth through eighth grades, will be the first event held at the Armory Youth Center, located next to Canonsburg Middle School. Afterward, the center will have “open gym” hours every week from Tuesday to Thursday, and local organizations can rent the building for gatherings.
“God has been good,” said JR Gardner, director of the Armory Youth Center, which is one of seven campuses under the umbrella of Metro Pittsburgh Youth for Christ.
Gardner said they received hundreds of thousands of dollars from “good-hearted people” in order to complete extensive renovations, but still need another $270,000 to finish the building’s basement area, where after-school programs will be held.
The rest of the building is “pretty much complete,” but they hope to raise money to install an outdoor LED sign and finish the parking lot area.
The center has a basketball court with newly renovated parquet flooring, originally laid in 1938 when the building was used by the National Guard.
They received new windows, donated and installed by Specified Systems Inc. of Canonsburg and were busy installing bleachers for the basketball court Monday.
Everything is coming together just in time for the holiday event, which will be sponsored by Canonsburg Youth Network, a consortium of local churches. Admission is $2, and students can register online at www.yfcmp.org by clicking on the Armory Youth Center under the “where we are” tab. The event starts at 9:30 p.m. and ends at 12:30 a.m.
The party will include dodgeball and basketball games, a photo booth contest, food and prizes.