'Just a great day': Leesburg, Boys & Girls Club host ribbon cutting for new teen center

LEESBURG — The City of Leesburg and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida hosted a grand ribbon cutting ceremony for Leesburg's new Teen Enrichment Center on Wednesday.

Dozens gathered in the morning sun at the Leesburg Recreational Complex as city leaders and Boys & Girls Club representatives came together to celebrate the grand opening.

"It's an absolute great day for our city," said Mike Pederson, Mayor of Leesburg." I think the location is great, the facility is first class, the kids are excited. It's just a great day."

Earlier coverage: Leesburg, Boys & Girls Club hosting grand opening of city's Teen Enrichment Center

Read about the groundbreaking: Leesburg Teen Enrichment Center breaks ground on Griffin Road

More in local news: Gov. Ron DeSantis appoints Tyler Brandeburg to the Lake County School Board

'In the works for a long time'

Located at 1851 Griffin Road in Leesburg, the Teen Enrichment Center was built as a partnership between the city and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Florida to provide youth and teens with a safe place to go during the summer and after school.

The city broke ground on the teen center in April of 2021, and now, over a year later, construction is complete and the center is ready to open.

"It's been in the works for a long time," Pederson said. "We actually tried to put this together probably 15 years ago back when I was on the board of the Boys & Girls Club and we just couldn't get to the finish line, the Great Recession impacted us, and it's just great to see it come back and do it right."

Travis Rima, Leesburg's Parks and Recreation Director, shares this excitement of the center finally coming together.

"We couldn't be more excited about this, the grand opening of the center," Rima said. "This has been a project that we wanted to do for the last seven or eight years, we've been discussing it for a long time and to see it come to fruition is very satisfying."

The 10,045-square-foot facility includes 10 multipurpose rooms to accommodate recreational, educational and enrichment programs for elementary, middle and high school students.

"This is great for our youth. We have kids from two schools be able to walk here — an elementary school and a middle school right down the road. I think we'll have maximum attendance and it's just great for the future of our city," Pederson said.

The project was made possible through $2.75 million in funding from the City of Leesburg, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida, and a Lake County Community Development Block Grant.

"I think time is going to show the more that we can get involved in the youth and teens lives at an early stage with good mentors and good programs, it's going to have an immense positive affect on the city of Leesburg," Rimes said.

The facility was designed by CPH Engineering and was built by Evergreen Construction. The Executive Vice President of CPH Architects, Peter Sutch, attended the ceremony and expressed his gratitude for involvement in the project.

"It's such a great facility and so needed in our community," Sutch said. "We're just happy to be a part of, even a small part of, of the city's continued growth and especially for the investment in the future youth so we're extremely excited."

'We're just over the moon'

The Boys & Girls Clubs have been providing a safe place for children in Leesburg to learn and grow since 1973. At its existing Leesburg location, the organization serves 50 club members each day. But with the new Teen Enrichment Center, that service capacity will increase by 200%.

"We're just over the moon about this. It's so exciting," said Gary Cain, CEO/President of Boys & Girls Club of Central Florida. "It's been a long project and a great partnership with the city. It's been a great collaboration and a beautiful place for the kids."

The mission of the Boys & Girls Club is to provide an environment for youth and teens to be supported and reach their full potential.

"It's probably the nicest place they're going to go every day and they'll meet people here that are going to love them and care for them and believe in them," Cain said.

He added that he believes the club's service to the community is needed now more than ever.

"I think that we need to take care of our children and make sure they're safe and loved. We have a mental health crisis right now and I think a lot of that tends to be because children start isolating when they're young," Cain said. "Here, they engage with each other, they engage with adults, so I think we'll have a brighter future."

Cain himself came from a difficult family background and attended the Boys & Girls Club. He said that the club was a transformative time in his life, and helped set him on a path to success.

"When I joined, I was shoplifting cigarettes, and taking part in different juvenile behaviors and the club opened and it was the first place I ever really felt like somebody cared about me," Cain said. "I remember the club director standing on the steps and saying 'Gary I'm glad you came. I'm glad you're here.'"

During his time at the club, he got the tools he needed to open a door of possibilities.

"When our clothes were ragged and tagged the director took us and got us clothes from a department store. All those little things are easy to take for granted but they mean a lot for a child," Cain said. "It was there that I really learned what it took to be successful and what possibilities were there."

Today, The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida is working to give this bright future to all youth regardless of race, gender, zip code, or neighborhood they come from.

"They're going to be able to get on that ladder of success," Cain said. "Maybe their family has struggled but they're going to be able to take that next ladder. And maybe be a first-generation college student, like I was the first generation college student in my family, it just changes the whole dynamic."

Want to learn more?

To discuss further ways to make an investment to the Boys & Girls Club contact Richard Yount at ryount@bgccf.org or 703-628-2290. For more information on the Teen Enrichment Center, call the city's Recreation and Parks Department at 352-728-9885.

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Ribbon cutting ceremony held for new Leesburg Teen Enrichment Center