BOO! Halloween is coming!

The Riverbender.com Community Center wants to invite you to a couple of our Halloween events!

On Friday October 22 (Yes 2 days away), we will be holding our first ever Halloween Dance Party! We will have costume contests and activities. The center will be open to all attendees. The middle school times are 6-8:30 pm and the high school times are 9-11:30 pm. It will be frightfully fun!

And for FAMILIES! We have a family Halloween Party for all before the parade on October 30 from 5-8:30. Now children of all ages can enjoy the fun and games of the Center. Remember families that play together stay together! After you play, just walk down the block to see the parade. Homemade chili & chili dogs will be available for purchase.

Back to work on the Center

We have come a long way in the past few months setting up committees, events and programming as well as adding games and features to the center.

In April we opened our cafe and have hosted several events including MCHS After Prom, a Spaghetti Dinner, an Annual Corporate event and had the Cafe open for many dances that we have held over the past few months.

During the summer we held events like theater camp, chess club and even a jazz concert and Back to School Bash. All have been very well received and provided much entertainment for young and old alike.

Our membership drive in September was a huge success. Members will have lower entrance fees and be invited to exclusive events. Consider becoming a member today.

The Center is developing programs that teach good financial practices and healthy lifestyles and a Student Film Festival is planned. We are starting to offer clubs like Junior Achievement and Robotix, and Mock Trial Team, and an Investment Club where students can try to outsmart the stock market and each other!

Our main events are our monthly "dances". You can see on the calendar all the dates set up to hold dances. All the amenities of the center are available during the dances, so if you're not up for dancing, there are lots of other activities.

Isn't it time you came by and checked it out??!!!

Back to the Blog

Well what happens when you decide to try to win a grant from Pepsi??? Your life becomes consumed with voting and promoting. No time for blogging. So we are very far behind here. We voted throughout the months of March April and May. We did very well, as we ended up in 4th place each time competing against projects from across the country, some nationwide and many from communities much larger than ours.

We decided to pull our entry from the running and focus our efforts on the center and other means of financial support.

We thank all of you for your support during that voting period. We saw what this small town could do if they put their minds toward it. The Alton Park and Rec, Alton High School and Sts. Peter and Paul School did win their grants.

We will try again in the coming months and will ask for your support again. We can do it if we try! For now, back to work on the center!

VOTE NOW to bring $250,000 to ALTON!!!

http://www.refresheverything.com/RiverBenderCommunityCenter

It has come to our attention that some of you still don't know what the Teen Center is all about! READ ON>>>>

The Teen center is for High School and Middle School students who want a fun place to hang out! So far here is what is what we are planning to offer:

• A Main Stage for bands to perform or DJjs to MC
• Wood dance floor - very upscale - no vinyl here!
• A Movie Theater - yes the only one in Alton• Gaming Stations - Wii, XBox and PlayStation3 all projected life size on the wall!
• Pinball, Foosball, Pop-a-Shot and ping pong
• 2 Brand new billiards tables
• The Underground - another stage which will be stocked with instruments and electronics so your band can rehearse, have a jam session for friends or even record a CD! This is also a great performing arts space.
• The Art Space - for the creative minded
• A Lounge / Teen Library for quieter time - TV, Books, Magazines, Computer stations, Board games, etc.
• Internet Cafe - surf the web while you wait for your food!

This is a beautiful, state of the art facility. No detail has been left out. No corners have been cut. The community wants to give this to you - that is why they are donating equipment and construction material, furnishings and labor. Spread the word and make sure you and all your friends vote every day. It's important. $250,000 important!

Looking Good!

There is more progress on The Center each day.

Just hours after the the last meeting we posted, John and his Dad left for Atlanta to pick up restaurant booths for the cafe. "Why Atlanta?" you ask. The answer is simple and explains a lot about our operations. It was the best deal we could find. (in the entire nation!)

Very much research is done to be sure we have found the most value for our money ~ that doesn't always mean the cheapest ~ this will be a quality environment ~ upscale even. All donations to the center will be spent very wisely. And in fact, to date not very much has been spent with all the non-cash donations that have come in.

CARPET in the movie Theater!

This is such wonderful news ~ finish work in some of the areas has begun! A HUGE thank you to Ed Agles for donating the carpet for this room (and others) and Brian Scheffel from Straight Arrow Flooring and Kevin Neely from Direct Floors for personally installing the carpet at no charge! I'm telling ya ~ the community is really coming together to make this happen.

UPDATE: In a prior post we noted that Alton Refrigeration was going to donate the electronics for the Movie Theater ~ This has changed. They are going to furnish the Theater with the seating and tables! And Liberty Bank has presented a cash donation that will be used to cover the costs of the Theater sound system!

WHAT ELSE?

Here is some very nice furniture that was donated by Alton Refrigeration.

Here is some equipment that was donated:

The Gaming Stations were bought with a cash donation from Alton Memorial ~ notice the Wii FIT!!!

Richard Baird and his wife, Theresa O'Connor fixed up our glass displays to show off our shining stars of The Center ~ our sponsors who have made many many donations ~

If this doesn't say SHOP LOCAL ~ I don't know what does!!!!

Team Depot ~ Building CommUnity!

Our sincere appreciation to Team Depot! They have been painting since 9:30 am in the Underground Music Room, the Art Space and the hallways.

How wonderful of them to volunteer their time for our Center!

It may look quite garish but this green is the perfect shade for our green screen! When bands play for a video camera we can add any background ~ they can have a concert at Madison Square Garden, Gordon Moore Park or even under the sea!

Six volunteers came in to help out.

GO TEAM DEPOT!

My only question is how can they paint all of that and not be covered in paint!?!? Nice Job ALL!

More Construction ~ More Donations!

Well here's the update ~ 2 weeks later! The whole community keeps rallying around the Community Center!

The pool tables came in ~ Aren't they gorgeous? Thanks Atlantis Pools!

Workers come in every day finishing drywall, installing can light fixtures, measuring for carpet, tearing out unused equipment, more security cameras (thanks Ron!), painting and building shelves. We're trying hard to compile the number of hours put in by volunteers ~ and it's hard because we haven't kept good records ~ but we have this blog and FB and some notes on paper ~ But between all the volunteers' hours over the last 3 months there are hundreds.

[pic: Ron & Angie]

We received our largest Cash donation to date from Liberty Bank tonight at our Open House Meeting. They are very generous ~ and we promised them that the money would be used very wisely as we are such penny pinchers! We want the best for the kids !~ but we are committed to finding the best deal so the money goes a long way.

BIG meeting tonight was a success. We had a great turnout. We gave tours, Caitlyn brought goodies again ~ 4 pans of cakes and brownies ~ ok her Mom, Misty, did the cooking this time! ~ and we talked about the grants Pepsi is giving out over the next 20 months. We encouraged everyone to sign up and vote!

YOU also need to vote for the Alton Ideas in the Pepsi Refresh Project EVERY DAY. They will improve the Rock Springs Park Tennis Court & the AHS Tennis Court. We need everyone's help to support projects that IMPROVE OUR COMMUNITY! It's so easy ~ just log in and press the vote button ~ Takes MUCH less time than Facebook! ;)

Find the links to help Alton Park & Rec & Alton High at http://Riverbender.com/VOTE