Mr. Speaker, the Generation XX Youth Centre in Summerside has just won the 1998 Commonwealth Youth Service Award.
The Generation XX Youth Centre provides a gathering place and programming for youth in a drug and alcohol free environment. The centre was developed by a group of young people under the guidance of Constable Mike Rioux of the Summerside police force.
Together they took an old building which in an earlier life had been a curling club and a trade school and through hard work and dedication to the cause transformed it into a concert hall and Atlantic Canada's only indoor skateboarding facility.
The whole concept originated when a group of teenagers hanging out in a Tim Horton's parking lot was asked to leave by the local police. This was followed by the question “Where do you want us to go?”
Constable Rioux then realized the problem. There was no place for teenagers in Summerside to go. The rest, as they say, is history.
Congratulations to the young people, manager Gordie Whitlock and their mentor, Constable Rioux.