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Youth Center
Youth Center Staff
Jamie Cannon, Director of Recreation jcannon@tenafly.net
Kim Minuto, Youth Center Assistant kminuto@tenafly.net
Denise Timmons, Youth Center Assistant
Matt Kominsky, Youth Center Assistant
Youth Center-Tiger Teen Camp Staff (Summer)
Chris Rapp, Camp Director
James Leary, Assistant Camp Director
Vincent Cuozzo, Head Counselor
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
- Bumper pool
- Air hockey
- Chess & checkers
- Study spaces
- Video games and TV's (all games systems)
- Art Supplies
- Computer room for homework
- Open space room for group school projects
- Two 60-inch TVs
- Newly renovated kitchen & snacks
Membership
You do not need a membership card to utilize the Tenafly Youth Center. 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 Youth Center, you can use Youth Center equipment as well as use the Mary Mandel Room (computer room).
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.
A big attraction for our campers are our field trips to such locations as Great Adventure, Mountain Creek, RPM Raceway, Sandy Hook, just to name a few.
Teen Camp Informational Flyer 2022
Teen Camp Information Website Link
Teen Camp Parent Manual & Health Guidelines
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.