WESTBROOK – Austin Traweek doesn’t have a computer at home to do his schoolwork, and he can’t ask friends for help when he goes to the Walker Memorial Library because he has to be quiet.
But, as of last week, the 12-year-old can do both at the Mission Possible Teen Center on Main Street.
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“I get to play games and do my homework and check my Facebook,” he said Thursday, as he directed an animated soldier around a computer screen in the teen center’s new technology lab.
Austin can also walk down a short set of stairs and play pool or lounge on brand-new couches.
If he’s hungry, he can have dinner at the teen center, too. Starting Nov. 1, the meals will be more nutritious, with a focus on whole wheat and fresh ingredients, thanks to a collaboration with the Good Shepherd Food Bank.
Within the next six months, Austin may be able to take a dance or fiber-arts class at the center at no cost. A new arts guild is developing a plan to build stages and studios in the basement of the teen center.
The center’s new programs and improved interior were showcased at an open house Thursday evening that drew more than 100 guests, not including the teenagers who led tours and talked to visitors. In the crowd was Westbrook Mayor Colleen Hilton and representatives from the center’s corporate sponsors, which include Unum, Wright Express, Idexx Laboratories and Pike Industries.
Every day after school, the teen center hosts 40 to 70 youths, mostly from Westbrook, said Executive Director Donna Dwyer. About 30 of them eat dinner there for free.
Many are considered at-risk because they come from low-income families or have suffered hardships during their childhood, Dwyer said.
Cassie Lord, 16, has been a regular at the teen center for six years.
“It meant everything to me,” she said. “I don’t know where I’d be without the teen center.”
Although the mission hasn’t changed over the years, the look and outlook of the teen center has gone through a major overhaul in the past few months, since Dwyer was hired and a new president, the Rev. Tim Higgins, was named to the board of directors.
Rugs have been replaced and walls have been repainted. A plot of weeds next to the center is now a garden. And 12 flat-screen computers, set up last week, give the youths access to technology that they never had there before.
The open house, Dwyer said, was the teen center’s opportunity to show it all off to the city — and to the sponsors that made the rehab possible.
“The mojo is phenomenal,” said Higgins. “The future is very, very bright.”
Staff Writer Leslie Bridgers can be contacted at 791-6364 or at: lbridgers@pressherald.com
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