A Place of Their Own: YMCA creates room catered to tweens

Luckily for VanMeter, and other children between the ages of 7 and 13, the YMCA has created a place for “tweens” to hangout, have fun and exercise.

The Teen/Tween Center opened in its new location on the second floor of the building in late 2013 due to a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

“We expanded it based on money we (received) from the grant,” said Steve Snider, CEO of the YMCA. “There was nothing for the other kids to do. This room helps us fill the gap.”

Parents, who are YMCA members and want their children to take advantage of the free center, must stay on site and check their children in and out of the room for security purposes.

Having a room that is established just for tweens and teens is something of a rarity for YMCAs.

“It is hard to take this space and dedicate it to teens,” said Snider. “Once we got that grant, we were able to expand.”

The center is designed to be a place for kids (and teens between 14-17 if space allows) to have supervised fun while their parents are using the facilities at the YMCA.

“In between basketball games they will come up here and before swim team and after gymnastics,” said Heather Ciez, a Teen/Tween Center employee.

The room offers the teens and tweens the latest in active electronic gaming.

“The Y has different training events. This (the Cardio Wall) was one of the vendors at the event. We got great feedback (about the game) from other Ys,” said Snider.

The Cardio Wall challenges players to a high intensity workout through four inbuilt games that help develop speed, stamina, mental alertness, reaction time and more by hitting, punching or throwing something at light up discs embedded in the game.

In addition to the Cardio Walls there are a few arcade favorites like air hockey, ping-pong, pool and an electronic basketball game.

For those who are into videogames, like VanMeter, the center also has a selection of non-violent titles available on various platforms.

Students who want to use the time to catchup on homework can have access to one of the computers available.

“We have some laptops. They can surf the web, but it has software so they can surf only appropriate sites,” said Snider.

While the center is providing a place for children like VanMeter to hangout and have fun while parents are able to pursue their healthy lifestyle, it also helps to further the mission of the YMCA.

“The YMCA means a lot of different things to a lot of different people,” said Snider. “This room will allow us to care for the kids. This is an extension of our program.”