CIVIC CENTER FACELIFT BEGINS

Wednesday afternoon, when many teen-agers were hanging out with friends or watching television, at least 11 of them worked up a sweat on the parking lot of the Cape Civic Center.

They had a tough job -- tearing down a rotted retaining wall made of railroad ties. The boys, ages 10 to 18, used a crowbar to pull out metal spikes and a sledgehammer to knock down the rotted wood.

Soon, thanks to a $1,500 federal youth resource grant through AmeriCorps, the parking lot will have a beautiful oak retaining wall and a rose garden.

James Collins, adult leader at the center, and Felix Jones, youth leader, dubbed the project "Bed of Roses." Collins became involved with the civic center through his 10-year-old son, Kent, who was working hard Wednesday with his buddies.

"Roses are very pretty, and they symbolize a lot of important things, so that's what we decided to plant," Collins said.

The project is part of an overall attempt to refurbish the aging building, inside and out. The group just finished one inside room.

Collins said it wasn't difficult to get the boys out for the project, especially with such balmy temperatures. As a condition of the grant, the majority of the Bed of Roses project has to be done by civic center youth. Most of them would be at the center for basketball practice anyway, but the practice was delayed until much of the wall was down.

"This is their place, and they are to the point where they need to know responsibility," Collins said.

The boys were hard at work and shy about discussing their project, but a few stopped to talk about it.

"It's fun to be out here with everyone," Tellis Wilderness, 17, said. "When it's all done, I want to be able to say I helped."

A younger friend, 13-year-old Sus Sides, said he just showed up because the leaders told him to. However, he worked as hard as the rest.

The group should just make their $1,500 budget on the project, and Collins said they had to cut back on the number of rosebushes ordered. However, he expects Bed of Roses to be a great improvement on Cape Civic Center's exterior.

Weather permitting, the project should be done in three weeks.