CENTERS OFFER CITY YOUTHS RECREATION

In its third month in business, the Salvation Army's new gymnasium is getting a good workout.

Basketball is the game of choice most afternoons, but Scott Porter said he hopes to add other activities soon.

"We're trying to get some chess games, some checkers, dominoes -- games that kids can use to keep them busy for a couple of hours and games that make them use their heads and think a little," said Porter, director of the Salvation Army's community center.

The Salvation Army gym at Sprigg and Good Hope is open every afternoon Mondays through Fridays to children and teen-agers. Porter estimates anywhere from 40 to 75 children use the gym a day.

"I've even had as many as 100 kids in here at one time," he said.

The new Salvation Army center is the second recreational site available for disadvantaged children in Cape Girardeau. The Cape Girardeau Civic Center at 232 Broadway has been active for about 40 years, offering recreational and educational opportunities to young people.

The Civic Center is being renovated and cleaned up. Ed Slaughter, president of the board of directors, estimated 30 to 50 youngsters use the center every night, playing basketball and other games.

"We're doing OK," Slaughter said. "We're holding our own. We're making repairs as the money comes in."

With the new Salvation Army center opening, attendance at the Civic Center has fallen off slightly, Slaughter said, but plenty of youngsters in the community need some place safe and clean to go after school.

"We have lost some attendance simply because the Salvation Army is more convenient to a lot of the kids that live there around Good Hope," Slaughter said. "But we've also got kids coming from the Indian Park area and from the Washington School district and from around the campus. It's a long walk for them to go to the Salvation Army."

The two operations are cooperating to start up an after-school tutoring program for youngsters. HELP (Help Encourage Learning Program) combines academic tutoring and structured recreation, Porter said. Fifty students will be served at each site.

As the Civic Center's renovation program continues, so does the search for a new director. Two part-time people oversee programming during the day and at night, said Slaughter, but board members are still looking for a full-time director.

Calvin Bird resigned as director in 1994. He had held the job for six years, and left to pursue a private business venture.

Bird said Thursday that he might be interested in returning.

"I haven't been formally asked," he said, adding he had mentioned to friends in "just some conversation" that he might return if needed.

"The only discussion that there has been was that I was sharing with a few friends that I care about the community center very much. If it were possible, or if it were needed, then I would be willing to go back and try to get things back together," Bird said.

Slaughter said he was not aware of Bird's feelings, and added the board has not discussed the possibility of asking him to return.

"It's something that we'd have to talk about. It hasn't come up at all," he said.

The Salvation Army also plans to add the Rainbow Village program in the summer. That program is already in place at the Civic Center, as are GED courses, job training and other educational programs. The Salvation Army will also be adding GED programs.

"It's important for them to have some place to go that's positive and safe and clean," Porter said. "Otherwise, they'd be out on the street just causing havoc.