ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 13, 1996 TAG: 9611130038
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Wanted: a place for several hundred young people to skate.
Until Friday, they had been skating at the Brush Arbor Worship Center on Virginia 99 (East Main Street) from 6 to 10 p.m. every other Friday. But that building is being sold by the Galax-based Guynn Furniture Co. to Zimmer Developers of Wilmington, N.C.
"Honestly, it was a good notice," said Carson Linkous, senior pastor of the church part of the worship center. "They gave us notice about March that we might have to give up the building."
That was plenty of time to relocate the church to the former Church of the Nazarene building on Newbern Road, and the center's Emmanuel Bookstore to a separate building behind Hardee's in the Pulaski Mall. But church officials have not found a new place for the youth skating activities which generally attract 200 to 250 participants every other Friday.
The building had provided temporary space for Pulaski County's various courts, along with the church, while the county's brick courthouse was being expanded and renovated. Once that project was complete, the bookstore occupied one of the rooms vacated by the county.
For about two years, the church has offered the skating activities for young people in part of the remaining space. Some members had been storing skates for a skating center in the Maple Shade Shopping Plaza which had closed, and decided they might as well be put to use.
At first, the skating activities were weekly and open to all those wanting to take part. The response was overwhelming. "We just had to limit it to 250," said Donna Smith, one of the youth directors.
Admission was by a $2 donation, although Linkous said other arrangements were made for those who could not afford it. They earned their way in by helping to clean or prepare the place for the skating, he said.
The weekly schedule proved more than the volunteers could handle, too, so it was cut back to every other Friday.
"We couldn't take it every Friday," Linkous said. "We've had as many as 400, easy, here and we had to cut it back to 250."
The Worship Center has rules, including no bad language, no horseplay and no physical contact between boys and girls, not even holding hands except as skating partners.
"It was a little hard for them to start with, because they didn't like the rules," Linkous said. But the parents do, and the kids have accepted them in exchange for being able to skate.
"If they don't follow our rules, we do ask them to leave our premises," Smith said.
Vanessa Hill, a town police officer, has been available during the skating activities to make sure there are no discipline problems. "And she is just super with the kids," Linkous said.
"They respect our rules, once they know they've got to do it or they've got to leave," said Timothy Smith, Donna Smith's husband and another youth director. "There's good young people out there. They just need guidance."
The kids have been coming from places other than just Pulaski, he said. "We've got them coming from Wytheville, some of them from the Radford area, they come from all around."
"This is for everybody. It's not just one denomination," Donna Smith said, although there are pauses for an occasional prayer during the activities.
But the main reason for the activity has been to give area youngsters something to do, Linkous said. "And I think we have made a difference in Pulaski. I really do."
Anyone with a building which might be usable as a skate center can call Linkous at 994-0052.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PAUL DELLINGER/Staff. Kids skate for the last time atby CNBwhat has been the Brush Arbor Worship Center building on Virginia 99
(East Main Street) in Pulaski. color.