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Teen Zone to kick off Friday

• Albany-area teens are invited to "zone out" during hot summer weekends.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — Young people in Albany and the surrounding region suffering from “nothing-to-do disease” this summer can ditch that old saw. On weekend nights, teens will have an opportunity to get in the zone.

That’s the Totally Teen Zone, the brainchild of Albany Recreation and Parks Department Director Suzanne Davis. For 16 hot summer nights, young people 13 to 17 years old will have an opportunity to enjoy music, dancing, video games, food and other fun activities at Albany’s Thornton and Henderson community centers at no cost.

“This grew out of attendance of a gang task force meeting at which (Chief Assistant District Attorney) Greg Edwards said the best prevention is to find things for kids to do,” Davis said. “We started looking for answers and came up with the idea of a teen club.

“We got some corporate sponsors on board and then went directly to teenagers in the local school system. We put together a teen board and asked them, basically, ‘what do you guys like to do?’ and they came up with the ideas for activities.”

The Totally Teen Zone has a kickoff party Friday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Thornton Community Center, 210 Thornton Drive, and a “Disco Night” event at the same center May 16. After that, TTZ activities will be held at Thornton on Friday nights and at the Henderson Community Center, 701 Willard Ave., Saturday nights.

Other themes for the TTZ events are “Techno Night,” “Cold as Ice Summer Bling Party,” “Reggaeton Night,” “Gotta Dance Showdown,” “Albany Idol,” “Karaoke,” “Mr. and Ms. TTZ Pageant,” “Psychedelic Sixties,” “Skate Away the Night,” “Steppin’ Out Albany,” “Talk It Up” and a closing “Back to School Bash” July 26.

“We talked with corporate sponsors for just a few minutes, and they said ‘we’re in’,” Davis said. “We got a buy-in from the Albany Police Department and the Albany-Dougherty Drug Unit, and even though it took a little while for them to get used to us adults, we got a buy-in from the teens. That’s when things took off.

“One of the students came to our meeting a little late, and I started explaining things to him to catch him up. He said, ‘Will there be music? Will there be girls?’ When I said there was, he said ‘You don’t have to explain anything else to me, I’m in’.”

Davis said objectives for Totally Teen Zone were threefold: recreation and health to combat youth obesity, social interaction between youths and adults and community involvement.

At each themed TTZ event, the “Techno Zone” will feature popular Wiis and X-boxes, the “Music Zone” will have music provided by a DJ, the “Info Zone” will include on-site information at booths manned by the health department, law enforcement, Army and other vendors. The “Snack Zone” will feature free food and drinks.

“We’ve got sponsors who’ve gotten on board already,” Davis said. “Buffalo Rock is providing drinks, and we hope to have a different food sponsor for each event. CiCi’s Pizza is our first food vendor, and we have Combo’s from Master Foods. Hopefully, other local food vendors will want to be a part of this.”

The first 200 teens to show up at the events each week will be allowed to enter the community centers for the TTZ event. All who enter will be “wanded” for weapons and will be required to check all hats, cell phones and purses. Those who enter will receive a numbered arm band, which will be worn throughout the event. No one who leaves will be allowed to re-enter.

Security will be provided inside and outside the centers, and all volunteers who work at the events will be screened by the Parks and Recreation Department.

“People talk about at-risk students, but every teen is at-risk for something,” Davis said. “We want kids to have an environment where they can relax, have fun and do the things they like to do.

“This is a totally unfunded project, and our primary objective is to show that alternative events for kids will cut juvenile crime. If we can show that statistically, we can apply for grants that will allow us to have (TTZ) activities throughout the county next year.”

For information about Totally Teen Zone, its summer schedule or to volunteer/sponsor events, go to www.myspace.com/albanytotallyteenzone.com or call Parks and Recreation at (229) 430-5222.

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