Youth Centre 2.0

By Austin M. Davis
     The home of the Mossbank Youth Centre. 
                                                                                                               Photo: Austin M.Davis

MOSSBANK - There used to be three activities for teenagers in Mossbank to choose from on a weekend night.

“Basically there was nothing for kids to do. It was either go to the rink and watch hockey, go swimming in the summer, or just drink,” says Jenn Kraus, a bartender at the Empress Hotel who grew up in Mossbank.

The reincarnation of the Mossbank Youth Centre has provided another option.

Krauss was too old to attend the Youth Centre when it first opened. The targeted group was grades 9 to 12.  

But Krauss says many of her younger friends would spend their nights there, playing board games and watching movies. In this way, the Youth Centre was effective: for seven years, teenagers in Mossbank had a place to spend Friday nights under supervision.

“Honestly, I think it’s a great idea because when I was younger we had nothing. We had the rink and the pool and that was it. And it was ‘drive out and drink,’” Krauss says. “As sad as it is, that’s all there is, you know? Slowly we’re making it so there’s enough things for kids to do in town, which I think is a big thing in a small town.”

The centre wasn’t spurred by any particular delinquent behaviour but there was an obvious desire for the young people in the community to have something of their own. 

In 2002, a group of teenagers worked with the school’s librarian, Christina Singbeil, to open the Youth Centre in an available house near the Empress. 

“Christina (Singbeil) bent over backwards for those kids. She spent hours upon hours with them and the kids did a lot of the work too,” says Krauss.

Singbeil saw the same needs in Mossbank and took the job as Youth Centre coordinator. 

“I’ve grown up in the community. Kids need activity and need something to do,” Singbeil says. “The more free time they have on their hands, sometimes the more trouble there can be.”

Singbeil and the kids went to town council meetings asking for resources. The town granted the centre some startup funds and a location. “They gave us a little old house to start in,” Singbeil says.

While the Youth Centre received funding from town council, it didn’t get unanimous support from the community.

“There were different organizations that said, ‘Oh, this is only going to last a couple months, then you’ll be tired of it and that’ll be the end of it.’ Then there were ones who said, ‘Oh, it’s going to become the big party house,'” recalls Singbeil.

The youth overcame these prejudices under Singbeil’s direction. They opened up the centre to the community and worked on projects that would benefit others. 

The open houses weren’t well attended so the kids hosted barbecues. The barbecues drew a much larger crowd. 

The perception of the Youth Centre began to change as the efforts of Singbeil and the teenagers became visible.

“We would go help clean up at the rink. Later on when we did the movie theatre, that was a plan for the community. As much as for the kids, it was something for everybody,” Singbeil says.

Fundraisers began almost immediately as the kids turned their attention towards opening up a theatre in town. A few years later, when the CIBC on Main Street closed, the building was donated to the Youth Centre.  The building was converted into a fully-functional movie theatre.

The Rosette Theatre opened to packed seats. The teenagers who had been drinking in quonsets on weekends gave the entire community something to be proud of.

But rising costs eventually made the former building unsustainable. It was unreasonable for the Youth Centre to own two buildings, so the house was demolished and the centre moved permanently into the Rosette. 

In 2009, Singbell left her position as supervisor. 

“The last two years I felt it was time for me to step down and let someone else with fresh ideas, energized, and motivated to take it on,” Singbeil says.

No one with those qualities stepped forward for two years and the Youth Centre became stagnant. Teenagers were again left with limited activities in Mossbank.

Last winter, pipes froze in the Rosette. The basement was flooded. Repairs were expensive and time-consuming. 

In May, Mona Vandurme took the position as coordinator. Her family had moved to Mossbank from Calgary while the Youth Centre was still open. 

“She’s a very energetic lady. The kids all have a strong respect for her,” Singbeil says about Vandurme.

Vandurme says it’s been difficult to get kids engaged in the Youth Centre after two years of dormancy. She is working on getting the Rosette its license to show movies again. There’s even talk of field trips like bowling or paintball.

There is still funding for the Youth Centre but it’s a struggle every weekend to get the kids to come. But as long as the centre’s open, kids in Mossbank will have an option for how to spend a Friday night.

“If the kids are doing something productive, they’re not doing something destructive. It doesn’t matter where you are,” says Vandurme. 


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