CHIMACUM — The Jefferson Teen Center was set to close for good Friday. Funding had dried up and there was no way to pay the liability insurance.
But because of a flood of community donations, the center’s director Terri Murphy Naughton was able to tell the 20-some youngsters from 12 to 18 years old that it will remain open.
“Once they first told us [it would stay open], we were freaking out,” said Cody Jones, a sixth-grade student.
“We were running around.”
The teen center is an after-school program in a portable behind Chimacum High School. Students stay after school on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for a little over an hour playing pool, Foosball, video games, reading and playing outside.
Cody said his favorite thing about the teen center is that it is a safe place to go after school and he can play football with friends.
The prospect of the teen center closing left students disheartened.
“It was sad because we have come here all year and it’s been open for a long time,” Cody said. “We were just going to miss it.”
The teen center will close temporarily and will reopen on Thursday, Naughton said. She needs time to collect donations and extend the center’s insurance.
The teen center has been in the community longer than any of its clients. Naughton said she has been with the teen center for 25 years.
It was originally located next to a tavern but moved to a portable behind the high school, she said.
Naughton said that after an article in the weekly Port Townsend Leader about the teen center closing, community members pledged enough money to keep the teen center open at least another couple months.
The teen center runs on a shoestring budget, she said. Annually it costs $25,000 to $30,000 to keep it open four days each week. About $18,000 pays the salary of three people and the rest covers insurance, rent and other costs.
Funding has always been an issue, she said. She has relied largely on donations, grants and foundations, but funding seems to be harder and harder to find, she said.
“We’ve been hanging on by our fingernails,” she said. “It’s always been a struggle trying to find funding keep this place open.”
She first thought the teen center would close Dec. 31, but said she was able to find some money to keep it open until last Friday.
“That entailed my working as a volunteer, but that’s OK,” she said.
She won’t yet say how much money has been pledged because it hasn’t yet been donated yet. But if the donations come through, she said the situation will be much better.
Naughton said the teen center is vital for the students who go there. Typically 20 to 30 teens use the center. She estimated that it probably serves 300 individuals each year.
“It’s the only thing that these kids in the Tri-Area have,” she said. “There is very little for youth anyway in Jefferson County, but what there is seems to be centered in Port Townsend.”
The youngsters don’t have any way to get to Port Townsend, she said. They rely on the late bus after school to get home.
She would like to see the program expand, but for now she is just thankful the teen center will remain open.
Naughton said donations would be gladly accepted. Those who wish to donate can send checks to the Jefferson Teen Center at P.O. Box 126, Port Hadlock, 98339.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
A group of boys jumps up to catch a football while at the Jefferson Teen Center in Chimacum on Friday. (Jesse Major/Peninsula Daily News)
