New life given to North Broad Youth Center

New things are coming to the North Broad Youth Center this year, and after staff are finished with renovations, the free after school center will begin offering some new programs when students return to classes this week.

The staff of the NBYC teamed up with volunteers from Home Depot to turn some of the vacant rooms of the old Jennings Funeral Home building into a bright and colorful place of learning. Those volunteers spent much of Friday painting pieces of a streetscape, which will go in the center’s first grade room.

Workers from the NBYC painted the walls of the upstairs kindergarten class room and finished up a mural of rolling hillsides. Overseeing the remodeling was Director Terri Mayes, who explained the new programs coming to the center.

There will be a music program, where the kids can make their own beats, along with a Kindermusik program for the younger students, she said. The back rooms of the upstairs will be turned into an arts and crafts room.

The center will also be a teaching dinner etiquette class and will host a family dinner night where the kids can show off their new skills to parents. Berry Bonner Scholar students will be assisting with staffing the center, along with YMCA volunteers. There will also be Berry psychology majors volunteering to help with free counseling for students and parents, Mayes added.

The NBYC director said breathing new life into the old house turned funeral home would not be possible without sponsors from the community like Home Depot. The home improvement store donated $5,000 worth of supplies and equipment to help in the renovation along with of a few store workers. Behr donated all of the paint and Sherwin Williams donated all of the painting supplies, Mayes said.

The center will be open every Monday through Friday that school is in session, with hours from 3 to 6 p.m. The center takes all students from pre-k through fifth grade and allows sixth graders to act as mentors. Open enrollment and open house for the NBYC is Thursday from 4 to 8:30 p.m.

John Popham Above: Executive Director of the North Broad Youth Center, Terri Mayes, left, hugs Home Depot volunteer Latisha Leblanc who, with the help of other volunteers, painted walls for a streetscape that will go up in the first grade room. The center is expanding programs starting this school year and is working to prep rooms for when school starts back next week.

Right: Raphaella Hawkins, foreground, helps Janice Merritt put painters tape on the wall of what will be the first grade room.

Above: Volunteers with Home Depot and the North Broad Youth Center worked on painting rooms throughout the facility Friday.

John Popham Blu Reaves drills screws into the wooden frame that will hold a streetscape scene for the first grade room.