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Teen Center
Teen Center Staff
Jamie Cannon, Director of Recreation & Youth Services jcannon@tenafly.net
Carol Roux, Assistant Director of Recreation & Youth Services croux@tenafly.net
Kim Minuto, Teen Center Manager kminuto@tenafly.net
Denise Timmons, Teen Center Assistant Manager
Teen Center-Tiger Teen Camp Staff (2024 Summer)
Chris Rapp, Camp Director
Vincent Cuozzo, Assistant Camp Director
Dante Capurso, Instructor
Alysa Minuto, Instructor
What Is There To Do?
Membership provides you with a safe space to hang out and enjoy what the center has to offer including:
- Two Pool Tables
- Ping pong
- Arcade Games
- Air hockey
- Chess & checkers
- Board Games
- Study spaces
- Lounging Area
- Video games and TV's (all games systems)
- Art Supplies
- Quiet room for homework
- Open space room for group school projects
- Two 75-inch TVs
- Newly renovated kitchen
- Snack bar- snacks/drinks available at additional cost (CASH ONLY)
**TEEN CENTER IS NEWLY REMODELED-COME AND VISIT US!!**
Membership
You do not need a membership card to utilize the Tenafly Youth Center. Utilizing the Teen Center is FREE for to Tenafly Residents in Grades 6th-12th. However, membership has its privileges. We recommend all members to check in at the front desk and show your school ID. By being a member of the Teen Center, you can use Teen Center equipment as well as any sporting equipment.
Teen Center Membership Manual & Rules
Teen Summer Camp
Since 1999, the Department of Youth Services (aka Youth Center) has been hosting a teen summer camp for both residents and non-residents that are entering 6th – 10th grades. The Teen Summer Camp runs from 9:00am to 3:00pm for six weeks, usually starting the Monday after the last day of school and running until the first week in August. Although the camp’s location is the Youth Center, when not on a trip, the campers are outside weather permitting. Campers are offered to attend Field Trips to fun and exciting places (trips vary).
History
In the mid to late seventies, Tenafly’s League of Women Voters surveyed the residents of Tenafly to determine their needs and desires for the community. One of the requests was for an after school program due to the rise in latchkey kids in the borough. This program began in the basement of the old high school and moved to several other locations before finally landing in a building across the street from the current Senior Citizen Center. In the early eighties a fire destroyed this building.
In 1987, several years after the fire, the Youth Center was reopened in Tenafly Middle School.
Due to an increase in the enrollment of students in the Tenafly Public School system, a decision was made to build a Teen Center. The residents of Tenafly, old and young along with the Youth Service Advisory Board, the Mayor and Council, and many other borough departments join together to raise over $100,000.00 to achieve this goal.
Today, the building that you see is due to the incredible dedication and work of the people of Tenafly. This remarkable and irreplaceable service that the Borough offers its middle and high school aged residents depicts our mission statement of “Your fun and save home away from home, where you can enjoy your friends and your friendships in a nonstructural social recreational atmosphere.”
Many parents from other towns registering their children for the Teen Summer Camp and/or those that attended activities being held on the municipal field have been in awe of the Youth Center. They have said that they wish their towns had a similar facility but more frequently stated that their towns need one.
The uniqueness of the program is that the middle and high school aged residents want to be here. The Youth Center is a DROP-IN-CENTER, not a drop off center. The difference is at a Drop-In-Center the students can come and go as they please. In a Drop-Off-Center, the students are not permitted to leave without being signed out by a parent/guardian.