“It Takes a Village”: Community Brainstorm at Youth Center in Progress

“It takes a village.” That is what the chair of the Board of Supervisors, Cheryl Cullers, said on the morning of August 5, when the Warren County community came together at the Raymond E. Santmyers Student Union and Activity Center to discuss programming possibilities for the youth center in progress. Cullers is one of many who played a role in the community that attended, and people believe that Reaching Out Now (RON) is doing something worthwhile by revitalizing the Santmyers Youth Center.

The community comes together at the youth center on the morning of June 5. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

RON has had a presence in Warren County since 2008. The RON team, of which president Samantha Barber and her husband Joe Barber are members, has worked closely with the school system to generate programming that instills leadership values and excellence in young people. During the pandemic, RON partnered with culinary artist Devin Smith to bring seventy-five thousand meals to needy people. Since then, they have partnered with schools to host “family night out” dinners on school premises, which have provided an opportunity to talk about the youth center and gather support. They also have developed a scholarship named in honor of a young woman in the RON “family” who committed suicide.

A kitchen in progress. (L) Store Manager at the Front Royal Lowe’s location Melinda R. Counts, who is involved in developing the youth center’s kitchen, stands with Joe Barber, who has been a key leader in the center’s overall development.

This is for “our kids,” Samantha Barber often says. A woman of faith, she takes her role in the development of a safe space that kids can call their own very seriously. This project has a life and death dimension as young people like Harlee who see no reason to continue struggling in this world need opportunities that show them how worthwhile life is. At the youth center, the Nate “Dawg” Game Room is named in honor of another deceased young person in the RON world, Nate Jenkins, who died several months before Harlee in a boating accident. With a kitchen under construction, newly painted walls, plans for reimagining the space exterior to the building, and a security system in place, the Santmyers’ legacy shows every sign of enduring.

Samantha Barber, president of Reaching Out Now, welcomes the community and begins a session of brainstorming about possibilities for student programming.

It seemed that everyone in attendance had an idea about how they could help. While enjoying a meal supplied by Melania’s Gourmet, individuals paired off into groups to brainstorm possibilities in different categories; for example, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) was one of them, while education in the arts was also represented, a category in which this reporter found himself, saying that students need tutoring in writing stronger essays, as it is all too easy, even for an adult with an English degree, to branch out so many times that he forgets what he was saying in the first place. Another group made a map of resources for emotional and social support that young people can resort to as those businesses come into play at the center.

Before splitting off into groups, Justin Proctor of the Advisory Committee for Environmental Sustainability (ACES), who will be playing a role in reimagining the space outside the center, raised an excellent point about reproductive health: what resources will be available in that regard to the young people who come to the center? Sexual education is something that he has seen in his own background as a teacher as being vitally important because so many young people only know what they have heard thirdhand. In a phone interview later that day, Joe Barber confirmed that RON has not yet cemented a policy on this issue but is open to brainstorming and ultimately wants to point young people in the right direction, whether that be to a health expert or Valley Health itself. But Proctor’s point resonated throughout the room, and those who spoke in agreement that there is a “non-political” way to address the problem. One woman at the table, a “reproductive biologist,” felt she might have something to offer.

Reproductive health is one of many controversial issues on RON’s radar. Mental health, suicide, and drug prevention are high on the list as well. Ultimately, RON wishes to honor the parents who may desire assistance with so many aspects of their children’s care, except one of reproductive health. These are controversial issues in a controversial time, as the scene being sketched in the Middle East leaves little hope for the utopian dream of universal brotherhood or even a two-state solution, for which the famous words of Rose in Titanic may be prophetic and memorial: “Darling, now you can keep us both locked in your safe.” With the Front Royal Warren County Economic Development Authority potentially dissolving, one might see the youth of this county as the gem that survives the sinking.