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Cafe support is deserved because of track record
January 14, 2005

We are always glad to see voters scrutinize warrant articles, especially those that request their hard earned tax dollars. Questions are good and help keep government honest. One request, however, which will appear on the March town ballots in each of the communities within the Timberlane and Sanborn Regional School Districts, unarguably deserves a nod of approval from voters.
The Sad Café, an entertainment venue designed to keep teens away from drugs and alcohol by engaging them in the arts, survives because of grants, donations and money from admissions. But in order to qualify for the grant funding, the non-profit cafe must have documented proof that it has multi-community support, and yes, that support must be backed by the taxpayers’ money.

Dick Gerrish, vice chairman of the café, is once again asking the towns of Plaistow, Hampstead, Atkinson, Kingston, Danville, Newton and Sandown for $5,000 each to help pay the salary of the café’s community program director and to help support some of the teen programs.

Andrea Bonner has filled the role of The Sad Café’s community programs director for the last two years. Bonner, who earned her master’s degree in social work from Boston University, has been writing grants, evaluating programs, performing fund-raising duties, and helping to expand current programs and create new ones.

Last year $169,501 in grant funding awarded to The Sad Cafe benefited students from the Sanborn and Timberlane School Districts.

Bonner first got involved with café a few years ago when she and Gerrish applied for a grant from the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth and Families that helped start the cafe’s after-school program. Bonner said that she took on the job of program director because she believes in what The Sad Cafe does.

So do we.

Arts for kids, especially teens, is immensely important. The hours after school, before parents arrive home from work, can be the most dangerous time for teens to make bad choices, often out of boredom. Over the past year, more than 13,000 of our area youth have participated in the cafe’s activities and programs.

Programs offered through the cafe have provided teens a chance to form their own band, dance, sing karaoke, excel at playing an instrument, help each other with homework, and learn coping skills to deal with divorce and peer pressure.

Without someone applying for and receiving grant funding for the café, it will not be able to continue to offer all of the valuable programs for teens that are currently in place. Last summer, the number of teens that frequented the café was more than half of Plaistow’s school population. .

But the teens are not only from Plaistow. They are from all of the surrounding towns as well. The need for a safe haven for our teens is evident, especially in small communities where there are few entertainment options for youth.

Gerrish has pointed out that the procurement of grants is vital to the continued existence of The Sad Cafe.

“I know we can’t survive on our admissions alone,” he said.

Bonner, a licensed clinical social worker who has worked for the Seabrook school district as its community outreach coordinator, is more than qualified and has a proven track record of obtaining grants. The request for funding from each of the seven area towns will be well spent.

The $5,000 request of the communities within the Sanborn and Timberlane School Districts is seed money in many ways. It supports the program director’s position, which obtains grants that otherwise would not be procured for various programs for our teens. Essentially, the funding from each town will provide a reasonable stipend for Bonner, especially considering what she could be earning somewhere else.

The Sad Café, now approaching its seventh year, offers a safe haven for students of all ages. We urge voters to keep the café safe, by approving funding it needs to survive.

— The Rockingham News

Republished from The Rockingham News which is owned and operated by Seacoast Newspapers.
Copyright © 2005 Seacoast Online. All rights reserved.

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