Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 22, 1994 TAG: 9408220081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They destroyed years of computer data on hundreds of low-income kids - their school report cards, their shoe sizes, their allergies and everything else the center needs in order to help them.
To the rescue has come First Union National Bank, orthodontist Dr. J. Richard Svitzer, General Electric employees, Jim Spencer with Spentech Computer Services and many other people.
They've donated computers and, in Spencer's case, several Saturdays and Sundays of getting that information back onto computer. About 70 percent of it was on disk, and the rest of the database is being rebuilt.
``That's something insurance isn't going to pay for,'' said director Kaye Hale. She said police still have no leads on who stole five computers and wrecked the freezer and other equipment.
The nonprofit center at 13th Street and Patterson Avenue Southwest tutors children year-round with the help of 200 volunteers. It also organizes educational programs, field trips and daily recreation for young people.
Right now, as 120 children there prepare to return to school, the center needs educational software, school supplies, sports equipment and a 486 computer.
And money.
Demands on the center have more than quadrupled in recent years. It began in a house next door to West End Presbyterian Church as a project of that church and West End United Methodist. The center served about 30 kids in the immediate neighborhood.
Then came success, publicity and a move into its much larger building.
Now families all over Roanoke are begging to enroll their children for the free services.
Last winter and spring, the center staff took in 150 kids. Then the center's board forced the staff to face facts: There was not enough money or staff to properly feed, supervise, transport and teach that many children.
The board slashed the number to 120. That has broken the hearts of kids who still want in, said Michael Chandler, a former Los Angeles film editor and United Methodist minister who's the center's planner and Hale's assistant.
``What's tragic," he said, "is when we're out there, the older kids are playing basketball and the little kids are on Hot Wheels running through the sprinkler; and there are 10 kids outside the fence asking what they have to do to get in.''
The annual budget is now $163,000. Hale said that's stretched thin, with thousands of meals and snacks, bus rentals, public pool fees, utilities and dozens of other expenses. She's the only full-time staffer.
This summer, Fieldcrest Cannon Inc. donated 200 colorful towels so the children would have plenty for their frequent pool trips.
The gate to the center and playground usually is locked until programs begin at 11:30 a.m. Chandler said some parents have dropped their children off as early as 7 this summer. The parents have to go to work, and their kids have nowhere else to go, so they sit outside and wait.
Friday, the kids are planning to make their annual trip to Emerald Pointe Water Park near Greensboro. They've raised $900 through two car washes and a doughnut sale. The trip will cost about $1,800.
Children often are packed in at the center, crowding around desks with tutors and guest teachers. The center recently won a $45,000 Community Development Block Grant from the city to put toward a $125,000 renovation of an unused portion of the building.
Hale has pressed the city to contribute to the center's operating budget from its federal CDBG coffers, but the local CDBG review committee prefers to pay for building improvements or to start new public programs rather than keep old programs going. Instead, said a city grants worker, the committee encourages existing programs to find more permanent funding on their own.
At a recent meeting before the committee, residents agreed that youth programs were their highest priority. And yet, Hale said, only 7 percent of the city's last CDBG grants went to programs for children.
``All the series about `What are we going to do about teen pregnancy? What are we going to do about youth violence?'...This,'' Hale said, ``is what we can do.''
Donations may be sent to the West End Center, P.O. Box 4562, Roanoke 24015.
by CNB