THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 27, 1996 TAG: 9605270025
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 60 lines
It's hard to picture seriously troubled boys in the clean, crisp lines of architectural drawings. It was hard for two high school seniors not to see such youths when they were drawing the lines, designing a shelter for adolescent boys facing crises.
Shawn D. Danaher and Lyle P. Landman, 17-year-old seniors in the Drafting and Design class at the Technical and Career Education Center, produced the plan that Seton House officials will use for a new shelter for runaway boys. Seton House, which for 11 years has operated a shelter for girls on North Lynnhaven Road, aims to open the new counterpart by July 1998; the shelter is negotiating for a donated site for the program's expansion.
Thinking about who would use the new facility made Shawn and Lyle enlarge the bedrooms some and add a weight-lifting and recreation room to the basic suggestions provided by Seton House officials. The classmates also came up with the idea to add a ground-floor, easy-access bedroom for boys with disabilities.
After a year of fund-raising, other city vocational-technical students will perform most of the work on the project, shaving some $100,000 off the $400,000 building, said Kathy R. Jeffries, shelter director.
Seton House shelters 200 girls a year, up to 10 at a time. They stay for an average of two weeks. Boys facing crises at home can receive only outpatient counseling.
``Last year, we turned away 58 boys who needed shelter, who didn't have any other place to go,'' Jeffries said.
``There's a definite need. Some of the kids have chosen to run. Sometimes there're things in the home they're running away from. Sometimes it's rebellion. . . . Sometimes the child may have been molested or abused.''
Andrew Smith, the boys' Drafting and Design teacher, asked Shawn and Lyle to submit plans for the shelter. Seton House chose Shawn's. Then the two classmates revised the plans over two months earlier this year, while keeping up with their normal classwork.
They used a computer to combine the listed needs provided by Seton House with their own imaginations. They came up with a simple, two-story, vinyl-sided structure with a front porch. Five bedrooms and a communal bathroom are upstairs; eating, counseling and office space is downstairs.
``There were a lot of times we had to draw it over and over and over,'' Shawn said. ``Lots of times - like 20 times.''
At a luncheon last week, Seton House officials recognized Lyle and Shawn for their contribution. Both are planning on college and careers as architects; Lyle this year won a $1,000 scholarship in the Tidewater Builders Association Young Designer's Competition for a house he designed.
Both boys felt good about working on something real, not just a hypothetical classroom assignment.
``It's pretty cool,'' Lyle said. ``Because we're going to drive by that and say, `I helped design that.' '' ILLUSTRATION: D. KEVIN ELLIOTT\The Virginian-Pilot
Lyle P. Landman, left, and Shawn D. Danaher kept teenagers in mind
when they designed a shelter for Seton House.
KEYWORDS: SETON HOUSE SHELTER RUNAWAY BOYS by CNB