St. Michaels Community Center Offers Teens Alternative Fun
Providing teens of the Bay Hundred area a safe, fun, alcohol-free environment where they can grow and thrive is one of the important functions of the St. Michaels Community Center. While the Center also caters to adult senior citizens and offers a thrift store, on any given day there are youth around. Deena Kilmon, new executive director of the Center, comments, “It’s multi-generational here, older students mentor younger students and a large group of adult volunteers help with the variety of programming we offer.”
The Center was founded in 1990, offering elementary school students after-school programs. Today, enrichment programs are offered for students through middle school. The programs are affordable and children have input in the kinds of activities that are scheduled. Teen Night is popular for the middle school students in grades six through eight, giving teens a place to just hang out with friends one night a week.
Kilmon adds, “Local residents volunteer to personally invite local children to participate in our Teen Nights. It really works to have them go to neighborhoods and recruit kids they know to come. It’s an alternative to being on the street and the kids respond.”
In addition to adults, many teens volunteer at the Center, donating time toward required community service learning hours and helping as after school helpers and with planning programs and events. The Center sponsors such alcohol-free family activities as its annual Giant Pumpkin Carving Contest and weekly summer concerts in Muskrat Park in St. Michaels, as well as summer camp. Special seminars during the summer help kids learn things like sewing and playing the guitar, exposing them to new activities they may have never tried. Talbot Partnership’s “Guiding Good Choices” parenting program will also be offered to parents of fifth through eighth graders this fall. The Center operates in both St. Michaels and Tilghman. The Tilghman After-School Program is for students in elementary school through ninth grade. A special, “Just for Girls” program for middle school girls in Tilghman focuses on esteem building activities for adolescent girls.
Kilmon says, “These kids may be tough on the street, but they turn back into kids when they are here at the Center. Our dream for the future is to offer Bay Hundred youth a place to hang out seven days a week. We look forward to growing to meet that challenge.”
To learn more or to volunteer, call the St. Michaels Community Center at 410-745-6073 or visit www.smcctr.org.
Pictured is Deena Kilmon, new executive director of the St. Michaels Community Center.
