Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Jennifer Chen, left, a Saratoga High School senior, and Tannaz Altafi of Redwood School hope the attic of the Warren Hutton House will become a study lounge.

Teenagers establish nonprofit

Goal is to raise funds to keep teen center open

By Sarah Lombardo

The Saratoga Youth Commission will have an easier time raising funds to support its after-school programs at the Warner Hutton House teen center, thanks to the Friends of the Warner Hutton House, a nonprofit corporation the teens have established. With all the legal papers filed for nonprofit status, the teens said, the next step is to appoint board members.

"We need to get a board set up that will approve the bylaws before it can legally be a corporation," said Youth Commissioner David Mount, whose father has helped the teens with the necessary paperwork.

The teens have been working on forming the corporation for months to make it easier to raise funds for the center and to become more self-sufficient.

"The group will be able to keep all the profits from the Youth Commission activities and keep the Warner Hutton House open, and perhaps fund later renovations, buy computers and grant scholarships to [send] less fortunate kids to summer camps," Mount said. "We feel the possibilities are infinite once we get this nonprofit organization off the ground."

One of those possibilities includes converting the attic of the Warner Hutton House into a study and resource center, complete with group studying tables and computers. Now, the attic of the house is a dark, sweltering storage area for some of the center's supplies. With floorboards missing and exposed insulation in the stairway, the teens said, it's wasted space.

"I think we have separated leisure from study really, really well (downstairs), but what we would like to do is create a much larger study area, because right now, the majority of the area is where we have fun activities," said Youth Commissioner Brian Luskey.

The teens said the study center is necessary because teens have been hanging out in the library to use the computers. If the Warner Hutton House had computers for the teens to use, they said, the computers at the library could be used by other patrons.

The Warner Hutton House was designed to attract local youth away from hang-out areas in the city, such as the library, and give them a place to be with friends and do homework. The house was originally opened for teen programs in 1992, and middle schoolers were charged a $65 flat fee for participation. By school year 1994-95, the charge was changed to $2 an hour, but students stopped using the center because the payment system, they said, gave it the feel of a day-care center. The City Council cut the program in 1995 because of budget constraints.

But the center was reopened last year after the Youth Commission appealed to the council to reconsider its decision. The council agreed, but only on the condition that the Youth Commission would raise half the money needed, about $8,450, to keep the center open for a full school year. Through a golf tournament, direct-mail requests and a number of other fundraisers, the commission made the half-year goal, and exceeded it by about $1,000.

The commissioners are asking the council to fund the center for half a year, but have agreed that certain programs run through the Warner Hutton House might need to be eliminated, such as the Boneyard, a Saturday night live-band concert for high schoolers that showcases local bands, and the Music Fest, a once-a-year event that also showcases local high school bands.

Council members seem pleased with the commission's efforts, but said they need more information before they can make any decisions about appointing members to the Friends of the Warner Hutton House board or promise any staff time to such a board.

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