Youth center thanks its community and its senator

By TOM KANE

CALLICOON, NY —Three months ago, the grounds of the Delaware Youth Center looked like a bombed out battlefield. Today, you can see no sign of the devastation.

“It was our community that came to our aid,” said Tess McBeath, president of the center’s board of directors.

On Friday, July 15, the center held an open house to thank all its benefactors, not the least of which was State Senator John Bonacic. At the celebration, Bonacic announced another grant of $10,000 to the center. Over the past year he has arranged a $50,000 grant for it.

“I wish there were more youth centers in my district like this one,” Bonacic said. “It’s a wonderful place for young people to go just to hang out and have some fun. Tess McBeath and her board and volunteers have done an outstanding job here.”

“Because of the senator’s help, we have a new stove in the kitchen, a storage room for our tables and chairs, a new pool vacuum which we sorely needed, a thermal cover for the pool to keep the water warm and a new surface on the tennis courts,” McBeath said.

“We want the senator to be the first to bat some balls on our new tennis courts,” McBeath said.

On the court, the senator shot balls across the net to Brad Mallett, a former Town of Delaware board member who was instrumental in getting the senator to know about the center.

Other star center volunteers were rewarded with gift certificates. Groundskeepers Lloyd and Dolores Barsney, Mary Cade who donated several items in the kitchen, Ron Bauer who held track and field events for the children for 20 years and Phil Jacobi who, for 20 years, taught the youth to play tennis were honored.

“Without these people and without our other volunteers we could never have made this center the life line of the community that it is,” McBeath said.