Fairfield Community Center tailors room for youths

Kids all over America have the same lament – there’s nothing to do. In tiny Fairfield, the statement is pretty accurate. There is a small skate park that is very popular or kids can go to the library.

Now, the Fairfield Community Center has a new place for youth to have fun.

The brightly painted room dedicated to local youth is in the center’s basement. Colorful handprints are scattered along one wall and game tables fill Levi’s Room.

The room is named after Levi Larrison, who died in a traffic accident in September 2010. “We did a memorial and had people donate to the Community Center,” said his mother, Traci Larrison.

The Community Center board accepted the donation and decided to use it to make a room for young people, said Fairfield Mayor Ed Huber. Volunteers started work on the room last March, but work stalled over the summer. A final push organized by resident Kevin Finley, who put in 100 hours of labor, got the room ready in time for a dedication ceremony last Saturday on what would have been Levi’s 20th birthday.

About 65 people came to the dedication and a lot of them, including the adults, tried their hand at pingpong or foosball. Organizers took note that the adults were having as much fun as the teens. “We’re going to have an adult night,” Larrison said.

The town is working to put together a youth activity committee that will decide what events to have in the room. Organizers hope to have the room open at least one afternoon a week to start. A meeting of the committee is planned for next week. “We can use volunteers,” Huber said.

“I’d like to have people come in and give classes to kids and adults,” said town clerk Cheryl Loeffler. “It’s just a matter of having funding and volunteers.”

The creation of the new space is in keeping with the town’s plan to slowly improve the old grange hall. Before its transformation, the room was full of junk.

“The walls were awful,” Loeffler said. “The ceiling was falling.”

The next improvement will be a quiet room next to Levi’s Room where teens will be able to bring in laptops to hook up to the Community Center’s free wi-fi to do homework. A Wii has been purchased and will be set up soon. “It’s really going to turn into something positive,” Huber said.