“This is what it’s like to come together and get things done,” said Richard Schlitt, who recently led a crew of 70 Vero Beach Youth in Action teens and 25 adult members of the Kiwanis Club of Vero-Treasure Coast as they painted the outside of the Youth Guidance Mentoring Academy building.
“You know, I drove by this building many times and thought, man, they must not have any money there,” said Schlitt, adding that he approached Phil Barnes, Youth Guidance executive director, who was more than happy for the assistance.
“A few weeks ago we got a lot of the prep work done, pressure cleaning and sealing, and now this is the fun part for the kids, because they get to paint,” said Schlitt. “The kids are learning about service at a young age; it’s good to see them all outside. This is a beautiful spot with all these trees. It’s going to be a very enjoyable place.”
He noted that Schlitt Brothers Painting already had a history with the building, recalling that as a young boy, he had worked alongside his father, Frank Schlitt, when he painted what in 1962 was a newly constructed building to house the Indian River County Library.
The ever-expanding library had, since 1916, been located in the Vero Beach Woman’s Club, and in 1991 moved once more into its current facility.
Schlitt explained that the Kiwanis Youth in Action group generally works to fix up the homes of people who need assistance with projects such as painting, repairs, handicap ramps and fencing, but that the pandemic had caused them to direct their talents elsewhere for a while.
“But we felt this was a big enough building where we could separate the kids pretty well and be safe about it,” he added.
The Kiwanis Youth in Action group was joined in the morning’s work by Youth Guidance enrollees, staff and board members.
“This building hadn’t been painted since who knows when. You could actually touch the building and it would rub off; it was very chalky. So we’re giving it a little facelift,” said Barnes.
“It’s really awesome; I just think it’s amazing how many kids came out here to support it. It’s really helping us because this is beautifying the building and it’s helping us launch into our building remodel.”
Barnes explained that the building, which Youth Guidance purchased at the end of 2017, is being repaired from the top down, with a grant from the John’s Island Foundation that was matched by John’s Island residents Jeff and Shari Wampler, providing enough funds to replace the roof, which they hope to do before hurricane season.
“We’ve had some problems with leaks, and we’ve had to patch things. It’s almost more expensive to keep doing that than to replace the roof,” said Barnes.
“Our goal is to launch into a full-scale capital campaign within six to eight months. We’d love to have a commercial kitchen, shop space with a garage door and a multipurpose room, where the kids can learn trades and vocational skills and also life skills.”
Those programs, too, recently received a boost, as their skills training initiative was chosen to receive one of this year’s $100,000 grants from Indian River Impact 100.
Pointing to the northeast corner of the building, he said “what’s cool is this used to be a garage bay. We have pictures in the archives of the bookmobile, which used to drive in here. And so, we want to repurpose this to make it a bay again so that the kids can work on cars, small boats, that kind of thing. We envision this as being sort of the mechanic wing of the building.”
As a reward for all their hard work, everyone gathered in the shade of decades-old trees and were treated to a lunch of pizza, grilled hotdogs and hamburgers, cookies and Natalie’s Orchid Island juices.
For more information, visit verokiwanis.com or youthguidanceprogram.org.
Photos by Kaila Jones
