Wescott Junior High School transforming into a lively community center.

WESTBROOK – Laura DiBiase was delighted with the day camp program that her children attended this summer at the new Westbrook Community Center.

In the past, she said, she had to coax her 10-year-old son to attend, but a restructuring of the city-run program this summer to include many more activities beyond sports made her son, and now her 6-year-old daughter, eager to go to day camp.

“He and his sister loved going,” DiBiase said. “This year it’s almost like a totally new program.”

The re-vamped summer recreation program is just one of the changes at the city’s new Community Center – located in the former Wescott Junior High School building on Bridge Street. And as the fall approaches, plans for more new opportunities are under way, according to Maria Dorn, the city’s first director of community services.

They include the opening of a thrift store at the community center in October, from which the proceeds will go toward recreation program scholarships for the city’s children. The center also plans a host of activities for children and families this fall, ranging from a princess tea party to a Jedi Knight school to a family fright night around Halloween. There also will be educational programs ranging from a Red Cross babysitting course for teens and pre-teens and adult education courses.

Also, within the next year or so, the hope is to house a variety of community organizations at the community center. They include the Westbrook Food Pantry and the Westbrook Senior Citizens group, both of which are eager to find a permanent home in the city building. The center also may become a home for other groups such as a new multicultural center planned for the city and the Westbrook Historical Society.

“The building has a lot of potential,” Dorn said.

The community center is in an old building, but it’s brand new for the city.

This January, the city took over ownership of the former junior high when its students moved to the new Westbrook Middle School on Stroudwater Street.

Also in January, the city’s new mayor, Colleen Hilton, announced at her inauguration in January that she was eliminating the job of recreation director in favor of a creating a community services department that would offer more comprehensive services to city residents.

Dorn, a Westbrook School Committee member, stepped down from her elected position to become the director of community services as of May 1.

She faces a big job, heading a newly created city department in a building that’s almost 40 years old and in need of about $4 million in repairs and renovations.

But the building also has many benefits, including its size.

The city’s former recreation department was located in a former Westbrook High School building on Foster Street. That building is mostly filled with Westbrook Housing Authority apartments, so the recreation department’s space consisted only of two offices and an old gymnasium, said City Administrator Jerre Bryant. He said the total space was about 10,000 square feet.

Now, the new community center is located in the 97,000-square-foot former school so has nearly 10 times the former space.

Dorn said the additional room – including the athletic fields surrounding the former school – has been a real boon in revamping the summer programs for kids that the city traditionally offers.

“The accessibility to the outside,” Dorn said. “That’s huge.”

When she was hired, Dorn said, she saw the job as a “great opportunity for recreation to go beyond athletics.”

That was a goal in designing the day camp programs this summer. She said the programs took into account that the city’s youngsters have wide-ranging interests.

“Not everyone is a soccer player or a baseball player,” Dorn said.

In addition to sports, the day camp this summer emphasized arts and crafts, health and fitness, music and also reading.

Dorn said one new addition was a quiet room, created with the aid of a $500 grant from the Maine Humanities Council. It was filled with board games and books from the former Warren Memorial Library, so students could take a break from activities and relax on soft couches and read.

For kids who wanted to explore music, there was also Camp Rock, in which music instructor Brandon Foster introduced youngsters to basic music theory and had them form their own rock band.

“It reached out to kids who don’t want music lessons per se,” Dorn said. “It was just the coolest thing by the end.”

Adventure Camp was another offering. That two-week day camp, which is still under way, was designed for kids who had never been hiking or camping and also for those who had done those activities and loved them.

The camp’s aim was to teach youngsters about the woods and trails surrounding them and also include activities such as boating and swimming.

Dorn praised the day camp staff and also community volunteers for helping to give Westbrook youngsters an enjoyable day camp experience this summer.

She said the volunteers, including Westbrook Fire Chief Michael Pardue and other firefighters, brought over fire trucks for the children to see and explore. Also, she said, School Superintendent Reza Namin taught children soccer skills and school principals joined in activities with kids.

“The kids loved seeing them in a different light,” Dorn said of the volunteers.

The various camp programs, which ranged in price from $90 per session to $150 per session, appear to have been a success with Westbrook families. This summer, an average of 160 students attended the day camp session per week, compared to an average of 105 last year, according to Louise Marcellino, office manager for Westbrook Community Services.

DiBiase said that her son and daughter enjoyed the experience this year because “there was more exploring, going into the woods and looking at trees and doing different arts and crafts projects … It felt more like an extension of school.”

As the summer ends, others are eager to take advantage of the new community center, whose new website is www.westbrookcommunitycenter.org.

Jeanne Rielly, the volunteer director of the nonprofit Westbrook Food Pantry, said that organization, which has serves about 350 local families, looks forward to relocating to the center.

“It will be wonderful to have a permanent location,” she said. In the 12 years she’s been involved with the food pantry, it has moved three times and currently rents space in the former St. Hyacinth School, she said.

Joe Gowan, president of Westbrook Senior Citizens, said that group also is looking forward to finding a permanent home at the center. He said the group, which has about 200 members, needs a room for seniors to meet with friends and play cards, “just to get people together and have fun.”

He believes that the group, which was formed in the 1960s, would have more members if it had its own home.

The big question is when those groups can move into the community center, because it needs major renovations, including a new heating system, roof repairs and window and door replacements.

Those costs could be offset by about $2 million if the city decides to sell its York Street building and move City Hall into the former junior high, as well, as has been recommended.

Bryant has previously said he’s had preliminary conversations with people interested in buying the City Hall property and turning it into a hotel, a medical facility or an office building.

Bryant said the city has received a $226,000 Community Development Block Grant to replace windows and doors at the community center. He said the work is expected to begin this fall.

The city has also asked the Warren Foundation to help pay for the $750,000 cost of replacing the roof. The city is waiting to hear from the foundation. The hope is to replace the roof this fall or early next year, Bryant said.

The city’s plan has been to secure about $1 million in grants and donations to help pay for the renovations, leaving another $1 million to be paid through a municipal bond.

Bryant said the goal is to have the building restored enough to move the additional tenants in by July 1 of 2011. “We’ll see if we’re able to reach that,” Bryant said.

Hilton said she is very pleased with the progress of the Community Center so far and optimistic about its future.

“I couldn’t be more proud of what’s happening up there. It’s one of the things that really warms my heart when I walk through the center and see what it is evolving into and what I hope that it will become in the future,” Hilton said. “I think we’re going to accomplish the vision we set to accomplish – coordinating social services with recreation and other community needs.”

Sang Huynh smiles his way onto a bus that will take him and fellow Adventure Campers on a field trip to the Animal Refuge League Wednesday. The camp is among programs run by an expanded Westbrook Community Center. Photo by Rich Obrey