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Plea to help youth center denied
By Scott E. Kinney
rockinghamnews@seacoastonline.com

February 17, 2005

OUR VIEW

They're singing a familiar tune at the Sad Cafe.

The sadder part is that such a deserving program has to resort to a desperate refrain, year after year, just to keep the doors open.

Without a fast infusion of community support, the Plaistow-based nonprofit agency says it will have to close Feb. 28, spelling the end of the arts-oriented effort to keep kids away from drugs and alcohol.

The tune is familiar because the facility has been close to the edge before. It made a similar plea in 2000 and managed to stay alive.

The difference this time around, according to Sad Cafe chairman Walter Mailhot, is the need to find a long-term solution. The time has come, he said, for the Sad Cafe to have its own building in order to cut the overhead of paying a mortgage or rent.

Even though the organization has received more than $169,000 in grants since the hiring of a part-time community programs director in 2003, the $3,327 monthly rent on its building -- the former Chunky's cinema pub on Route 125 in Plaistow -- eats up a third of the annual budget. Grant money can't be used for rent.

Donation of land for construction is an option being pursued, Mailhot said. In the meantime, he hopes to find sponsors to pay one month's rent each to keep the facility operating.

And it should stay open.

Its arts-and-music programs are heavily used, not just by Plaistow teens, but kids from all of the surrounding towns. It serves the hard-to-reach 14- to 18-year-old population with after-school programming aimed at filling the dangerous hours between the end of the school day and parents' arrival home from work with better choices than the risky behaviors fueled by boredom.

Over the years, many thousands of teens have attended the weekend live band performances, which are offered in an unpressured, substance-free environment.

The Sad Cafe essentially serves the Timberlane and Sanborn school districts. Seven towns -- Sandown, Kingston, Newton, Atkinson, Plaistow, Hampstead and Danville -- were to be asked on their town meeting warrants next month to contribute $5,000 each to help pay the program director's salary and support some programs.

Given the benefits in prevention of juvenile delinquency and crime that the towns have reaped from the Sad Cafe, it would be a genuine shame -- and a loss for both teens and the community at large -- if the program shuts down before those votes are taken.

The Sad Cafe deserves a chance to survive, and we'd hope that an angel -- or some community organization -- finds a way to keep the Sad Cafe going until a permanent solution is reached.

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