Roger Varley has been in the news business almost 40 years with The Canadian Press/Broadcast News, Uxbnridge Times-Journal, Richmond Hill Liberal and Uxbridge Cosmos. Co-winner with two others of CCNA national feature writing award. In Scout movement over 30 years, almost 25 as a leader. Took Uxbridge youths to World Jamboree in Holland. Involved in community theatre for 20 years as actor, director, playwright, stage manager etc. Born in England, came to Canada at 16, lived most of life north and east of Toronto with a five-year period in B.C.
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Sometimes it feel' good to be wrong
It will be a year this October that the Uxbridge Youth Centre opened for business on Brock Street West.
It started out slowly enough; just a couple of hours for a couple of evenings a week. But, my, how the programming and the hours have grown and, to all appearances, the youth centre is proving to be a success.
Part of that success was apparent on Tuesday, when the Youth Centre took over the parking lot in front of Africycle at the former Dominion Auto building on Reach Street. Dozens of young people were there, riding their skateboards up and over ramps and rails brought in for the occasion, listening to several mostly local bands performing on a small stage and filling up on popcorn and soft drinks.
The kids ranged from pre-teens on tiny scooters to mid teens on bikes to late teens on skateboards, all of them seemingly intent on wrecking either their equipment or their limbs as they endlessly practiced tricks and stunts. If I had practiced piano in my youth as diligently as the skateboarders practice their moves, I'd likely be a concert pianist by now.
The bands played with gusto, and although few of them are likely to have recording companies knocking at their doors, their audience lapped up the music and the atmosphere. The message seemed to be that it doesn't matter if you are good or not: what matters is that you try.
When the idea of a youth centre was first being floated a few years ago, I was a vocal critic. I believe I wrote columns stating the youth didn't deserve a centre as long as vandalism continued unabated. I was also of the opinion that such a centre would fail to attract many youth.
It feels good to be proven wrong. Although vandalism continues to be a major problem in town - (indeed, even in the hamlets) - one can tell even from a cursory glance that the centre is bringing out the creativity in a lot of our youth and providing others with some direction. The youth have, in fact, made this place their own, to the point that they really need a larger, more permanent space.
While a lot of commendation should go to the volunteers - and, now, paid staff - who have worked hard to make the centre a reality, it wouldn't be so successful without the wholehearted participation of the youth themselves. That participation doesn't just show itself in the jam sessions and band nights. It also is apparent in the less glamourous programs at the centre, programs designed to help the kids adopt healthy eating habits, become more adept at their studies, try new things and attain more positive attitudes about their self worth.
It is more than likely that in future columns I will continue to rail against thoughtless youths scattering their litter over the downtown streets, rant about those who insist on showing me what brand of underwear they have under their gravity-defying jeans and complain about the rowdy groups who congregate at certain locations late at night. I guess it's a generational thing.
But it seems to me that I also need to recognize their successes, creativity and enthusiasm with the same vigour I employ when writing of the more negative aspects of youth.
Tell me, am I wrong?
