Great Progress on the Teller Partitions!

It was another great day at the community center yesterday! Thanks to everyone who helped out (Dad, Al,Sister Susie, Chris Norton,Joey and Ashley, and earlier in the week Uncle Larry Maher) As you can see we removed two of the three of the three teller partition walls which included cabinets, marble, countertops, block walls, and wiring. Hopefully today (Saturday) we will finish up the remaining partition and begin to clean things up. Depending on the help that shows up we might get a chance to start in on the wall near the security check-in that needs to get removed.

For those of you that are not familiar with the plan... These partitions need to come out to make the 1st floor look more open and to give easy access to the pool tables and foseball tables. For more info check out our floor plans on the website.

Open House

We decided to hold our Open House on Friday November 20th because we knew Downtown Alton would be bustling with people for the Taste of Alton and the lighting of the Christmas Tree. So we rallied our troops to pull off a last minute event.

We thought it would be a nice opportunity to introduce the greater community to our project. A chance for them to take a tour of the building as it sits – basically pre-construction, looking much like a bank and office space. A night to experience a glimpse of the fun to be had, and in the end to realize how much of a transformation this project is going to be.


Signs were made to guide the visitors through the three floors and explain what was in the works – which spaces would house which activities and which sponsors were making each area possible.


Even though the main area of the Community Center will eventually be a dance floor and stage for bands or DJs, we filled it with gaming stations: Pop-a-Shot, Darts, Wiis, Xbox, Playstation 3, Foosball, ping pong, Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk skateboard and more! Special thanks to Alton Memorial Hospital for making such a generous donation of all the video game consoles. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the games and activities!


The event was a success with about 300 people showing up for a tour or to just browse and play games with other youths and their parents. It was a perfectly wonderful family atmosphere.

The Center raffled off 2 Tony Hawk skateboard games for Wii and Xbox - our winners were Brayden Favilla and Michael Crain. Our raffle, 50/50 and sales of soda and hot cocoa made enough to cover the raffle prizes.

We were all quite happy with the turnout at the Open House. We were able to inform more people about the Center than we have been able to through word of mouth and the website content we try to push.

Please help us continue to spread the word on this Center – If we can gather more interest and support the community can develop the Center into one of the best alternatives for our local teens to spend their free time.

Moving Along ... The Teens Join in!

Last week we had a meeting with the Adult Advisory Board to get to know each other, tour the facilities and have a discussion about each person's hopes and dreams are for the center. The week before we held a similar meeting with the Board of Directors. Both went very well and further elevated the group's excitement.

Between the two groups we have assembled an amazing selection of people with exceptional qualifications. The future for this Teen Center is looking quite bright!

Tonight we hold our last Initial Meeting. We have yet another capable and energetic team forming. This group, The Teen Advisory Board, enlists the Teens themselves. They are going to have complete ownership in this process. It is their center, and they will be making all sorts of decisions from what activities will be offered to creating center policies. Oh and there will be plenty of hands-on work for everyone as well!

The Teens will work in tandem with the Adult Advisory Board who will offer their support and guidance through the process of building the historic bank into the Teen Center.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be involved in such a project. We are honored to be working with some of Alton's best and brightest. Our teens are our future adults. It is good to see the willingness on their part to be involved and take responsibility to create this one-of-a-kind center.

Send in the Teens!!!! Can't wait to see everyone tonight!

Construction on Movie Theater Begins!

Tonight was an exciting night as we began construction for the new 30 to 50 seat movie theater on the first floor of the teen center. Big thanks to H2K construction for donating their labor on this project! Hank Hart, Mark Elloitt, Eric Zipprich, and Tim Kane wasted no time as they swung into action about 3:30 today tearing out doors, desks, cabinets, windows and ceilings. If all goes well they'll be back at tomorrow to finish tearing down the remaining walls and ceiling. I need to also give a little kudos to my parents, sister Susie, wife Dawn, and kids for their help as well for carrying out materials and cleaning up the mess.

Speaking of construction I need to mention that last Friday we got a step closer in the lower level with our Band room and our Art room. I didn't get the time to blog about it but we had a nice little crew working to clean up that mess down there and to prepare for the construction of a new stage in a room that might eventually be called the "Underground" This will be a place for band members to practice or play for friends in a comfortable setting "down under" Big thanks to the work crew that consisted of Richard Baird, Brian Gebben, Ashley Hentrich, Kaitlin Keenan, Smantha Horstman, and Stacey Worley, Megan Flatt, and Angie