What's going on with the MHS & LHS Youth Centers?

There was a time way back there when the Youth Centers of Midland High School and Lee High School were vibrant places where high school kids could gather after school to play ping pong, shoot pool, listen to the top tunes on the juke box or sip malts and just hang out.  And on occasional weekend nights there would be dances featuring live local bands.

But, that was then.

I visited both Youth Centers recently to find out what's happening now, and here's what I found out:  There's not much happening there now.  Why not?  Their funding dried up.

The Youth Centers are owned by the Midland Independent School District, and a non-profit corporation was set up to accept donations to run it.  And that corporation ran it on donated funds for many years.

Funding Stopped

There is a very generous philanthropic organization here called the Abell-Hanger Foundation.  And at one time they were funding the Youth Centers.  You can visit their site and download their annual reports for the years 2000 through 2004.  And it appears from those reports that funds were donated to the Youth Centers during those years except 2004.

In 2004 the Abell-Hanger Foundation celebrated its 50th anniversary, and that year's report recapped the grants of the past 50 years.  Get the 2004 50th anniversary report (PDF) here.  The report said that the Foundation had given the Youth Centers sums totaling $369,315 between 1959 and 2003.  That's a whopping sum, and hopefully the money was well spent.  But, note that there was nothing given in 2004.  And there will probably be nothing in 2005.  So there's a mystery.  Why was funding cut?

So far I've been unable to find an answer to that one.  I have a phone number for a person who is said to be the only active member of the Youth Center board of directors.  As of the time of this writing she hasn't returned my calls.

Corporation dissolved by Secretary of State

Some clues can be found in the Texas Secretary of State's records.  A Texas non-profit corporation is supposed to file a form 901 pursuant to Article 9.01 of the Texas Non-Profit Corporation Act every four years, and they are supposed to keep a current name and address of a registered agent for service of process on file with the S.O.S. office.  Youth Centers of Midland, Inc., was painted on the walls of both the MHS and LHS youth center buildings, however, the S.O.S. office doesn't have a listing in that name.  They do have one for Midland Youth Center established on October 1, 1945.  But, the last 901 report was filed on October 1, 1985.  So the reports would have soon been 16 years overdue had the Secretary of State's office not dissolved the corporation on June 3, 2005.

That's right.  The corporation was dissolved.  This is all a matter of public record.

What's Next?

Any major donor is going to insist that certain corporate and bookkeeping formalities are observed.  And it's possible that the donations stopped because of the failure to keep the corporate filings current.  But, I'm speculating -- I don't have all of the facts.

In any event, the Youth Centers have lost their funding.  And one individual with whom I spoke suggested that an option might be for the buildings to be turned back over to the Midland Independent School District.  What happens then is anybody's guess.  But, if MISD elects to keep them running then the funding source would seem to be our school tax dollars instead of private donations.

This is an unfinished story.  More info if and when available.  Or if you have information please get in touch.

Comments

[Wallace-Midland Texas]

The youth centers were where it happened decades ago when I was an MHS student. You could either eat in the cafeteria or have the tacos in the Youth Center. Dances were mostly held there too. I'd be interested to see what you find out about what has happened to them.

[Trey R. Barker]

I graduated from Lee in 1985 and for at least one of those years, maybe two, we used the youth center as a band hall while the new band hall was being built. I had never been in the youth center and never went back again after the band moved out. What I remember was that it had a reputation as being the hang out for all those kids who didn't have a car, who didn't have anything cool to go do after school. It struck me at the time as kind of a Hallmark After School Special kind of place. Same with the cafeteria. We had an open campus so the only people who ate in the cafeteria were those who, again, didn't have a car. Sad thing is, from the vantage point of 20 years down the line, I suspect there were some cool people and cool happenings going on at both places, but I was just too cool to check it out.