The Weyburn Youth Centre has been a part of Weyburn since 1994 but the first idea for the Youth Centre happened in 1992, 25 years ago.

"Twenty-five years ago in the summer of 1992, Pastor Dennis Hall and I were sitting at a table at Trossachs camp. We were talking about what we could do for the youth of Weyburn. They were bored, they had nothing to do, there were suicides in the town. So we were just talking and pastor Dennis said he had run a coffee shop in Oxbow. He said maybe we could do something like that or a drop in or something. So we decided to call a meeting of anybody who was interested in starting a youth work, youth centre or drop-in centre," said Cameron Weber, Founding Board Member of the Weyburn Youth Centre, who still serves on the Board of Directors.

On September 10th, 1992 there was a planning session and it was agreed that a Youth Centre was the way forward. The election of the first board happened a month later, October 8th.

Pastor Dennis Hall, who was the Pastor of the Church of God at the time, was the first President with Weber voted in as the first Vice President.

Jim Mills was the Secretary and Treasurer. Jim Rubin, Michelle Steward, David Kibbens and Ken Fox were the other members of the first Youth Centre Board.

Weber said that the young people had nothing to do and getting into trouble with the police. Young people weren't going to church so they decided that the church had to go to them.

On January 5th, 1994, we opened the youth centre at a downtown location. it is now a parking lot but it used to be the old Woolworths store building and we opened it March 1st, 1994, we had the grand opening.

The building had been converted into the drop-in centre.

"We were surprised at the number of kids that came out"

It was at the end of that year in Dec 1994 that the lease was not renewed because the young people were being too disruptive to local businesses with fingerprints on windows, cigarette butts on the ground.

The youth centre moved to the basement of the Baptist Church but it wasn't long before the youth caused significant damage to that building.

It was decided in Jan of 1995 that the youth centre should find the way to have their own building.

In October of 1995, the youth centre was given land in the fairgrounds for a building and the purchase of Goodwater building for $1.

The following year the youth centre purchased a building from Colfax. Both buildings were moved into the current location October 1996 after basements had been built.

The City of Weyburn helped with the finances as well as a grant from the Muttard Foundation.

The new building had the grand opening, October 26th, 1996.

Brian Hopfe was hired as the New Executive Director to Weyburn in August 2001.

Hopfe was pastoring at a church in Westlock before he moved to Weyburn. His family wanted to move to Weyburn to be closer to ageing family members.

Hopfe's experience in working at the youth centre in Westlock helped him in the position in Weyburn.

Changes have continued to be made over the years.

The Skate Park was built in 2005 and modernising building renovations happened in 2008.

"We have the skateboard, BMX and Scooter park," said Hopfe.

"We have the drop in and then we do programming in the school, we are doing guys mentoring, youth leadership development in the high school with the boys and we are looking at doing something with the girls as well," he added.

Hopfe added that they also working alongside the church youth groups in the area as well as camps.

Hopfe is also overseeing youth centres in communities of Kipling and Wolseley.

Weber and Hopfe shared their highlights of working with the youth centre over the years.

Hopfe mentioned seeing the notable changes to young peoples lives as the main highlight.

Weber said his highlights include seeing the "miraculous way" the youth centre came to be and the lives that he has seen change for the better.

When tragedy struck the Webers with the death of their 18-year-old son, they were able to open the youth centre on Thursday nights for his group of 30 friends that used to come out in order to help and to counsel them.

"We used to volunteer a lot at the youth centre to be able to talk with the kids and just be their friends and encourage them. We see their lives changed We see some of them as adults today and the friendships are still there from back when they were still in the youth centre. Just to be a positive influence on the community and a light for the Gospel in our community," explained Weber.

Finances have continued to be a challenge for the youth centre but they manage to keep going with support from individual donations as well as support from businesses and other organisations.

This year the Weyburn Youth Centre was accepted as a member agency for United Way and will receive financial support raised at the recent Communithon for 2018 but still need ongoing support.

Hopfe and Weber both said that the other challenge the youth centre has is the need for new volunteers.

The Weyburn Youth Centre Drop-In is open Friday and Saturday evenings.

If anyone is interested in volunteering or supporting the Weyburn Youth Centre in different ways, Contact Brian Hopfe directly on 306-842-5165.