EL CAJON — With its aged exterior and an interior far too small to meet the needs of its growing clientle, the Renette Community Center needed an extreme makeover.
And thanks to a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Block Grant, the center has opened its shiny new doors after nine months of reburbishing.
EL CAJON — With its aged exterior and an interior far too small to meet the needs of its growing clientle, the Renette Community Center needed an extreme makeover.
And thanks to a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Block Grant, the center has opened its shiny new doors after nine months of reburbishing.
“This is just great,” said El Cajon Mayor Mark Lewis at the facility’s grand re-opening on Thursday, Feb. 2. “I can’t believe the difference. They even have better games for the kids to play with, too.”
The work included repairing the gymnasium, pouring new concrete, expanding several offices, enlarging a game room (and adding two pool tables, a foosball game and a ping-pong table), and repainting the entire structure.
With several hundred in attendance, as well as many city, state and federal officials on hand, a symbolic ribbon was cut by Lewis and fellow city councilmembers Jillian Hanson-Cox and Bob McClellan, to open the doors of the revitalized center.
Dozens of children, including basketball players, girls scouts and Renette members, also partipated in the festivities.
“I just love it,” said Elicaveth Armas, mother to nine-year-old member, Antonio. “He plays basketball and we really missed coming here during the repair.”
Another mom, Amy Caressey, told how the center’s staff allowed her son, Nicholas Korzec, 9, to be on the basketball team, even though he had recently been in a car accident.
“They were so wonderful,” she said. “They knew he could not play, physically, but they let him stay on the team and support the other kids. They deserve to have this construction work done. It’s amazing.”