Volunteer effort leads to new teen room at Sweetser campus in Saco

SACO — The new community room at Sweetser’s residential school campus in Saco has almost everything a teenager or young child could dream of in an indoor recreation area. There’s a karaoke stage as well as video game stations, pool tables, a foosball table, weight room, kitchen, a movie room with recliners, a craft room and a reading area. There are shelves of movies, video games, board games and craft supplies, and a snack station with a popcorn machine and cotton candy machine.

It’s a far cry from when Old Orchard Beach resident Sharri MacDonald first saw the space in 2019 when she was delivering Christmas presents. MacDonald spearheads an annual donation drive to collect presents for the students who attend the Eslie J. Parquette School at the Sweetser campus on Moody Street. The school is a residential program that supports students struggling with social, emotional, and academic challenges, and helps them gain the skills they need to succeed in a public-school setting.

When MacDonald delivered presents, back on that day in 2019, she and Sweetser staff hid them in an empty basement space under a gymnasium in one of the buildings. Though the space had been untended for many years, MacDonald thought it had a lot of potential.

She was talking with a Sweetser staff, who told her that some children at the program feel that the only adults that want to spend time with them are those that get paid to do so. This struck a chord with MacDonald, and she got the idea to turn the space into a community room – a special place for the children at the Sweetser campus.

She talked with her fellow members of community group OOB365, and they were all in, as were the members of the Saco Bay Sunset Rotary Club. Members from both groups chipped in to recreate the space.  Leo Menard of the Saco Bay Sunset Rotary Club, who owns a home improvement company, was able to rally up other contractors as well as students from Biddeford Regional Center of Technology to complete electrical, carpentry and other work necessary and to help get in-kind donations.

 

The movie room and the karaoke stage at the new teen area at the Sweetser campus in Saco. SBN STAFF/Liz Gotthelf

The new community space, called “The Spot” is the result of an all- volunteer effort.

“This took a lot of heart, from a lot of people,” said MacDonald last week at a ribbon cutting for the new community space.

She estimated that there was about $40,0000 of monetary contributions and in-kind donations that went into the project to create The Spot.

 

The reading nook at The Spot at the Sweetser Campus in Saco. SBN STAFF/Liz Gotthelf

“When community members like Sharri and her team of volunteers come together to dedicate their time, their efforts, and their resources to the kids we serve, it really makes a difference. It tells the children someone cares,” said Jayne Van Bremer, president and CEO of Sweetser.

Van Bremer said Sweetser serves about 76 students at its special purpose school, and about the same number of children in its residential programs. Statewide, Sweetser provides a variety of mental health care services to more than 16,000 adults and children a year according to the organization’s website. Van Bremer said Sweetser can continue to provide these services, thanks to the help from efforts like MacDonald’s.

Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.