Boys and Girls Club Dedicates New Teen Center
It's the first one of its kind in central Arkansas and now it's open to teens. Wednesday, the Dalton Whetstone Boys and Girls Club in southwest Little Rock dedicated a brand new teen center to provide a positive place for at risk kids, separate from their younger counterparts. Bud Whetstone spear-headed the mission to renovate this building behind the current Boys and Girls club and turn it into the teen center. He says the focus here is on not just on keeping kids out of trouble, but preparing them for college and life.6,500 kids across central Arkansas belong to Boys and Girls Clubs, but some folks want to increase those numbers especially when it comes to teenagers who could end up getting hurt or getting into trouble on the streets. That's why organizers of the teen center say it's so important. DeWayne Butler told us if he didn't belong to the Boys and Girls Club, he'd be "in a gang. I don't know. I don't think I'd even be surviving right now."Butler says when you walk into a center for teenagers you leave behind thoughts of childhood and start thinking about the future. And that's exactly what Bud Whetstone wants. "We want to bridge that gap and make sure when these kids turn 18 years old they go someplace and not the street. And that someplace is going to be college or it's going to be a job," Whetstone told us.Along with recreation, the center will offer GED courses, information on what it takes to go to college, and they'll offer college tours. Whetstone said, "people do not choose to be born into the situation that they're born into, and I want them to know that the people in this community care."Donations helped make this place a reality. While $5,000 was spent to actually put it all together, you can look around and see a lot more money than that. For instance, exercise equipment was all donated by the North Little Rock Athletic Club. DeWayne Butler says he plans to take advantage of the athletic resources but he wants to be a plastic surgeon. And he knows the teen center can give him the tools he needs to get there. He's already learned about the scholarships available to him. And he's thankful that people believe in him enough to create a place like this for him and his friends. Arkansas Baptist College partnered with the Boys and Girls Club to help create the teen center. In particular the coach of the Arkansas Baptist Buffalos, Charles Ripley, helped secure a lot of donations and funding for the project.
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