THE MYSPACE IS MEARLY FOR PROMOTIONAL PURPOSES. PLEASE SEND ALL YOUR SHOW REQUESTS TO FRANKY AND RICHARD AT THE EMAIL ACCOUNT THAT IS PLASTERED ALL OVER THE MYSPACE.In the fall of 1984, then Mayor of Burlington, Bernie Sanders, put together an office to give the youth of Burlington a voice throughout the city. “The Mayor’s Youth Office†worked directly with his office to make suggestions on how the City of Burlington could provide services for the youth of our city. One of the first and most exciting ideas was to set up a Teen Center, where programs and activities could be centered for area teens. Within months 242 Main opened it’s doors to Teens interested in everything from evening coffee houses to live music events. The difference between this new teen center and so many others that have sprung up around the country since, was that 242 Main was and is run by a board comprised of youth and young adults. Originally The Mayor’s Youth Office over saw the goings on along with the original manager of the space, Kathy Lawrence. In the years since, the 242 Main governing board has become an independent group of youth and adult community members who meet 4 times per year to make sure the interests of young people and the community are met at 242 Main.Throughout the eighties, 242 Main experienced many ups and downs, especially after the original manager left the position. The teen center occasionally closed due to budget cuts and lack of revenue, but the interest level in 242 Main among local teenagers and young musicians never waned. 242 Main had become a place for youth to gather for live music events, talk about issues of the day during political/social affinity group meetings, and work on art projects. After numerous managers came and went throughout the nineties, there was a surge of interest in 242 Main. This interest was concentrated among youth and the generation of community members that had originally worked on and attended programs at 242 Main 10 years before. 242 Main had been under the dept “City Arts†after the closing of The Mayors Youth Office, for a few years. Unfortunately the teen center was loosing direction and under the threat of yet another closing in 1998. At that point Mayor Peter Clavelle asked that a different city department step up and take over 242 Main. Burlington Parks and Recreation was the only department willing to take the teen center on as one of it’s program sites. Due to 242 Main’s “out of the mainstream†history of programs and youth served, this new relationship took some time to get used to. But ultimately both parties, Parks and Recreation and the 242 Main board, knew that this teen center was important to our community. This mandate to keep the teen center open made working together essential to the future of programs in 242 Main.Since 242 Main was taken on by Parks and Recreation, we have seen a real growth in the diversity of the programs at the teen center. Because of this diversity in programming we have reached a much larger group of young people with our programs than ever before. While continuing the “core “ programs that have carried through for twenty plus years, we have (with the help and resources of Parks and Recreation) been able to open up our teen center to a wide range of activities and events over the last 5 years. One of the most exciting and successful new programs, is our summer Rock Music Camp. In a mere 3 years the camp tripled in size and attendance, with limitless possibilities for future. The Rock Music Camp was independently run in other towns in the area for two years prior to becoming part of 242 Main’s roster of programs. Greg Matses, a local musician and teacher at area colleges had been facilitating the camp, and was drowning in a sea of overhead and expense to put the camp on. One of his main expenses for the camp in it’s first 2 years was renting school space for it to be held in. When I (Richard Bailey) saw the level of dedication and excitement in his student/campers, I knew it would be a perfect fit for 242 Main‘s roster of programs. By making the camp one of our programs we alleviated the main expense, since 242 Main could provide the facility (Memorial Auditorium and 242 main itself) for the camp for free.Once we settled on working together with Greg, the real work began. One of our many contributions to the camp, in addition to facility space, was to raise funds through grants. Our goal for our grant writing efforts was to help make the camp accessible to all young people interested regardless of ability to pay the tuition. We have successfully done so for 3 years now, thanks to our generous sponsors and community members who saw the potential for our vision. In fact our scholarship program is one of great pride for us, since we have not turned one child away from our special camp because of inability to pay. We were even able to provide this scholarship opportunity during our third session, even though or attendance ballooned from 29 to over 110 students in the third year. This growth in the student body, as you can imagine, could have been disastrous for our scholarship program, but our grant writing saw similar success and support. Since our support grew we were able to provide scholarships to all 110 students based on need.After only 3 years the 242 Main Rock Music Camp has become a cornerstone of our dozens of programs here at 242 Main. We have seen our numbers jump with all of our programs. From The After School Program, monthly Pot Luck Nights, Screen Printing Workshops, Rehearsal and Recording programs to our long standing tradition of weekly live music events, we are serving an average of 200 youth per week. Our history has shown that we have a niche with young artists, and socially minded youth here in Burlington and the rest of Vermont. Our goals for the future include continuing to develop already successful programs like the Rock Music Camp and to expand on those successes. We will continue to listen to the young people in our community and try to provide programs that meet their interests. We will also continue to collaborate and work with local and regional organizations on development, fundraising and on getting the word out about our successes. We feel that the most important element of successful programs is the art of listening to the community and those being served.TO BOOK YOUR BAND EMAIL
[email protected]
