Facility director Efrain Gomez is ready to get back to work building community programs available to all ages.

Rec center aims to reach out to everybody in fall

Adult programs planned as kids return to school

By Israel Saenz Caller-Times
August 13, 2006

Martin Sauceda is not quite ready for school to begin.

The Wynn Seale Middle School student has spent his summer walking down the street from his home on Morris Street to the Gonzalez Education and Recreation Center, where he spent his days swimming, hanging out with friends and playing basketball.

Last week he was still sweating from a game before it was time to go home.

"I just like it here because I get to hang out with my friends," said Martin, 12. "And I want to be a basketball player when I grow up."

Martin and the other 170-plus kids the center has attracted daily this summer may not look forward to school starting Monday, but facility director Efrain Gomez is ready to get back to work building community programs available to all ages.

After a summer of providing youth-driven recreation and educational programs, the center has about a month to prepare fall programs the facility has never hosted.

Change has been a constant for the center, which was founded by Dallas businessman Al Gonzalez in 2005.

It switched hands from the Boys & Girls Club to the Gonzalez Education and Recreation Center in May.

Youth activities will continue into the fall, but the start of school brings an opportunity to extend services to adults and senior citizens, Gomez said.

"During the school year, we can reach out to everybody," he said. "We'll be able to have more diverse programs."

So far, a room where General Educational Development courses will take place sits empty, but Gomez said the center will have it ready by early to mid-September for the program's debut.

The center also will offer computer and English literacy courses, as well as swimming, food and nutrition classes to seniors.

Gonzalez has donated between $700,000 and $1 million to the facility, Gomez said, and the center is looking for other sources of money.

"(Gonzalez) wants the community to take ownership and keep the center going," Gomez said.

The center held a boxing tournament fundraiser in late July, and Gomez hopes to raise between $80,000 and $100,000 with a golf tournament in October.

The center also is working with the city of Corpus Christi's Model Block Program, which began with a parade Saturday morning that ended at the facility. In tandem with the program, the center will house a city office and police substation in the center to coordinate the Model Block Program.

Carlos Truan, former state senator and first vice chairman on the center's board of directors, said the center's inclusion in the program could bring in several hundred thousand dollars, and that new fall programs will be a "shot in the arm" for the city's Westside.

"The center is attracting the community as a whole - not just young people," he said. "I think we're going to succeed."

Contact Israel Saenz at 886-3767 or saenzi@ caller.com