Photograph by Robert Scheer
Aicha Alley, 14, prepares to let a dart fly at the teen center at the Northwest YMCA.
By ERIC DRUDIS
For Tina Holloway, program director of the Northwest YMCA, last Thursday's grand opening of the teen center, a program intended to benefit junior high school students in the area, was a dream realized.
Since March, Holloway had been drawing up plans for the center, which is co-sponsored by IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Partial funding for the project came through the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care, which will give the center $100,000 in the next two years.
"Teens, especially those in junior high, are particularly underserved in our community," Holloway said. "The teen center will provide a safe place for teens during non-school hours."
At the grand opening, former Cupertino mayor and county supervisorial candidate Barbara Koppel delivered a speech, and Margaret Abe, a representative for congressional Rep. Anna Eshoo, read statements congratulating the YMCA and stressing the importance of serving teens' needs. An estimated 50 people attended the grand opening.
The teen center has a stereo, computers for homework and an area to play table tennis. Decorated to invoke a mellow atmosphere, it will provide teens limited access to the other YMCA facilities.
Open Friday to Saturday between 3 and 7 p.m., the center will charge a $50 annual fee or a $2 per drop-in charge.
If more than the expected 1,100 teenagers visit during the teen center's inaugural year, Holloway said it might relocate to a larger facility or branch out into satellite units across the community.
The Northwest YMCA is located at 20803 Alves Drive in Cupertino.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, October 9, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.