South-Central : Church Group Builds YMCA Rec Room

A Covina church group dedicated to interracial relationships is building a computer and recreation room at the 28th Street/Crenshaw YMCA, 1006 E. 28th St.

“It’s going to bring inner-city teen-agers off the streets so they can get computer education as well as recreation,” said Cynthia Boutte, executive director of the facility.

Bridging the Gap, an organization with Faith Community Church and other congregations, was formed to grapple with deep-seated cultural misunderstandings after the 1992 riots.

Last year, group member Ed Martin, who is on the board of the Crenshaw YMCA, suggested the project. Faith Community Church paid most of the $2,750 for materials, and several group members donated the labor needed to turn a storage room without finished walls, ceiling or floors into a teen center with space for computers, recreational games, music, videos, typewriters and adding machines.

The recreation room would have cost about $6,500 without the donated time and labor, Martin said. Faith Community paid most of that, along with the First African Methodist Episcopal Church and Scan Health Plan. The room will open March 18.

“It’s really exciting that so many people came together,” Martin said. “In these times when you’ve got the riots saying we can’t live together, this makes a statement that maybe we can.”