The Mon Bijou Community Center stands just “up the hill” on Mon Bijou Road, just past its intersection with Midland Road. Blue Mountain stands mighty tall in the background.
Through a federally supported community-development block grant provided through the V.I. Housing Finance Authority, the center is now slated to get a whole lot bigger. Sunday morning, the ceremonial first shovels were used to dig dirt on the site of what will be an expansion and addition to the current community center.
The new facilities will be directly across the street from the current center and will come complete with a garden, a kitchen and hall space that will also be available for rentals, a music production and recording studio for children and teens to use as well as adult bands, and a full scale basketball court.
“We want to be a multipurpose community center,” said the center’s treasurer Natalie Moorehead, reaching out to more of the island community than just children with the new facilities. “We’re trying to show that we’re multitasking here in Mon Bijou. We can do a lot of different events and things.”
Agriculture, culinary, music and sports were all mentioned as programs currently held or that could come as a result of the new facilities. Construction is expected to last around 14 months. Site work began in late March.
“We have very talented people in the community, especially teens,” Moorehead said. “We’re trying to promote the youth with our programs and run them so they have another outlet and something to do. Every year we’re getting bigger.”
The center serves about 30 youth, and will see those numbers rise to at least 75 in the summer.
One of the center’s major events in July is the annual teen talent show. Moorehead called it an effort to “bring back the old time Doc James talent show that he did years ago.”
“It’s not about competition or winning awards or anything like that. It’s just about the community coming out to support the talented teens that we do have here,” she said.
.jpg "These T-shirts were made by students in the center's entrepreneurship course.")
Anything family oriented and low fee are the main ideas behind the types of programs Moorehead envisions being held at the new facilities. She said the main things they stress to kids who come there, besides being responsible and disciplined in your craft, is the message that ‘You can be anything you want to be, so do what you love and are passionate about and give back to your community.’”
“We cater to every age to do all we can to help the community,” she said. “And most of it is volunteer. We show them that you need to give back to your community. You can’t just take.”
Stephen Chapman is one such volunteer. Since he has a degree in graphic design, Chapman teaches kids those skills at the community center, things he said nobody taught him until he was in college. He said his experience volunteering at Mon Bijou began when someone simply asked him to do it for a week. That was in 2011, and now he teaches summer classes there in addition to one on Friday afternoons, all for kids who range anywhere from 10 to 16 years old.
Chapman, who joked “his time had gone,” said he found teaching to be very satisfying.
“I didn’t go to college to just go away and stay away. My whole idea was to go away for two years and then come back and give back to home,” Chapman said. “If we don’t grow our own community, we can’t expect here and the job situation, to improve.”
Music teacher and aspiring DJ Nakita Poleon said she enjoyed showing kids what she knows about music production. She said she’s self-taught because she recalled being bored and there being no place to go on St. Croix when she was a child. She added that for similar reasons, the center means a lot to those who currently use it.
“Everybody loves music, but to learn how to make their own, the kids really like that part. They like being creative. I think they like that the most,” Poleon said. “And it (the center) gives them someplace to go.”
As Moorehead said more than once, the Mon Bijou Community Center is, “someplace positive.”
More information on the Mon Bijou Community Center is available by dropping in for a visit from 2 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, or visiting it on the web at www.monbijouyouthcenter.org. The center can also be found on Facebook. Email can be sent to monbijou@live.com.
