The Oakwood Community Center has grown to become a hub in Troy's North Hillside neighborhood- just ask the kids.
"We do dancing, we do games, and sometimes we go up to the church to play hide and seek," said 10-year-old Corey Ligons.
The community center basement gets its fair share of use from youth programs, girl scouts, town hall meetings, church services, and more. But the basement gets hot!
"When we're playing games and running around playing tag or we're moving around when we're dancing it gets really hot. The door doesn’t really help." said 9-year-old Kamaya Wilmot.
To keep kids cool, the center is looking to fundraise $30,000 to purchase a central air system, hoping it’ll make kids want to be there more.
Currently, they're keeping the basement door open in the summer to let fresh air in; the building sits right along Hoosick Street.
"This should be a safe haven; and they've [kids] mentioned sometimes when we have the doors open, it's a super busy street, not only because we have Hoosick and all of the car traffic, but people use our walkway as a major pass through,” said Shanna Goldman, Oakwood Community Center Executive Director.
Ligons says people walking by can be scary at times, “some strangers walking past and the doors just wide open."
To kick off the fundraising efforts, the community hosted an ice cream social to help spread the word.
The goal is to grow the community centers use, and make youth feel safe at a time when violence lingers.
Saturday evening, a 16 year-old male suffered non-life threatening injuries following a shooting near River Street in the North Central neighborhood. Troy Police are conducting an investigation.
MORE: 16 year old shot in Troy
"They don't feel like they can play outside, don't feel like they can be at ease,” Goldman added. “if you just go outside, you don't see as many kids just riding bikes around the street."
A community organization has already donated $10,000 for the goal.
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