SEQUIM — One afternoon, Gerrod Jacobson and Mike Countryman, both 16, were doing what a lot of Sequim teenagers do — walk around the town aimlessly.
They were waiting for a friend to finish karate practice and started talking about the need for young people to have somewhere to go — a place that wasn’t geared toward a particular clique or activity.
“Wouldn’t it be great if there was a place . . .,” they said, creating an ever-increasing list of what should be available in that place:
Movies. Music. Games. Space for horsing around and large social events.
“It just kept building and building,” Jacobson said.
Two things are most important, they decided: It has to be a place teenagers feel attracted to, a place of their own. And it has to be a place where everyone is welcome.
And then they hit on an ambitious idea — they could create the place they wanted, even run it, and open it to other young people in the community.
Jacobson and Countryman, along with Chris Menges, the friend who was in karate class that day, have been pursuing that idea recently.
Business plan
In one day they gathered about 150 signatures on a petition of support (about a third of those came from adults, they said) and have started talking about a business plan, licenses and attaining nonprofit status.
They’ve also joined the discussion about opportunities for teenagers in this small town, a discussion that has young people complaining that “there’s nothing to do” — and local leaders trying to fill that void.
