Carbondale IBEW provides Free help for Boys and Girls Clubs to renovate a building

DREAM REALIZED: AFTER YEARS OF WORK, CARBONDALE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB CELEBRATES OPENING

BY KRISTEN CATES
THE SOUTHERN
[Sat Sep 25 2004]

CARBONDALE -- With two quick snips of the scissors, Carbondale's first Boys and Girls Club member Precious Lesure cut through the ribbon to officially open Carbondale's first ever Boys and Girls Club.

Lesure, an 8-year-old Thomas school student, has been coming to the club for two weeks every day after school, said her mother Tina Lynn.

The ceremony Saturday morning at Carbondale's old high school involved members of the community who have been a part of putting together a club that many organizers said they have a hard time believing has come to life.

Carbondale City councilwoman Corene McDaniel spoke to the crowd gathered at the ceremony about her first impressions of the building.

"I was downstairs on day one. It was dark and dirty," she said. "I thought, 'no way.'"

Another part of the celebration honored the person many board members say is responsible for bringing this building to life.

Inside the building, a plaque was placed on the wall to honor John Cherry, the Carbondale man who board member Georgia Wessel said is responsible for raising the nearly $450,000 it took to get the club open.

The gym will be rededicated to Cherry, who said he once worked as an assistant basketball coach in the gym 47 years ago.

During the dedication ceremony, Cherry gently wiped tears from his eyes as he received the praise.

"If it weren't for John, we wouldn't have this building today," Wessel said. "He was here every day for eight months (during renovations)."

Cherry spoke humbly of the dedication, saying that it had more to do with the money and volunteer time that people put in to getting the club up and running.

"It's so humbling and brought me to tears when I was told it was going to happen," he said.

Cherry said he had been involved in several teen centers over the last forty years, but he watched most of them come and go.

He and other interested people started looking into affiliating themselves with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America about five years ago.

Then, more than a year ago, it was settled on moving into the old Carbondale high school on North Springer Street. But the building was in bad shape, Cherry said.

The floors hadn't been sanded since they were first put in the building in 1935, he said.

"It was an overwhelming task to look at this," he said. "Almost daily, we would say, 'Where do we go from here?'"

But, people offered a helping hand. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers provided an electrician on a daily basis for free.

Volunteer laborers looked at the gym and the lighting and Cherry said the group decided they had to bite the bullet and buy new light fixtures.

"We reached a point where it was too good to stop. We left no stone unturned," he said. "It's really turned out to be a dream beyond anything we could have imagined."

Board president Julia Wetstein said in the two weeks since the club opened, membership has grown from 38 kids to now more than 130. And there's always room for more, she said.

"We want to keep this open forever," she said. "As the parents will tell you, over the past two weeks, parents have come to depend on this building."

kristen.cates@thesouthern.com 618-529-5454 x15804