For the last 50 years, a unique public-private collaboration has worked to pick up the ball that schools drop. The public side of this partnership includes the city of Oakland, while the private side entails a bevy of concerned volunteers. The result is the Junior Center of Art and Science.

The center offers instructional programs in art, photography, carpentry and gardening, as well as animal and reptile habitats -- and more. Students take field trips to the center and attend after-school programs there. Plus, there are plenty of drop-in activities for kids.

According to Upper Rockridge resident Leone Evans, the center serves an astonishing 35,000 children a year. In the center's early years, she estimates that figure was fewer than 5,000. But the center has been absolutely jam packed since then.

Evans, a Junior Center board member and longtime volunteer, has been with the center almost since its very beginning. She remembers when the site opened in 1954 -- in the Moss House mansion in Mosswood Park. "There were three levels, so we were constantly going up and down stairs," she says.

Soon, Moss House became too small for the center, and a new utilitarian structure was built next to it.

The Junior Center is the brainchild of the Junior League of Oakland-East Bay, which put together a group of 52 educators, scientists and local leaders who advocated creating a space where children could work creatively. The Junior League then got the Art League of the East Bay and the East Bay Children's Theater on board; at the time, both of these groups were offering similar programs to those found at today's Junior Center.

With the support of the Oakland Recreation Department and $70,000 from the city -- an amount matched by the three groups -- the league was able to have the structure built next to Moss House, and the new center was soon underway.

By 1992, the center had outgrown its second home and moved to its current digs on Bellevue Avenue near Lake Merritt.

Three years ago, Executive Director Tammara Katsiksas began a capital campaign to improve the small lakeside center's facilities. And this Saturday, the Junior Center will celebrate not only its own 50th anniversary but also the completion of a $450,000 renovation that resulted from this campaign.

The renovation work and expansion of programs, including more staff, should allow the center to double the number of children served --to 70,000 children. This would end the center's heartbreaking need to turn away up to 7,000 students per year for lack of space and staffing. But the center also sends staff and volunteers into schools, and each visit is completely underwritten by grants secured by center staff.

The "Family Fun for the 50th" day, April 3, isn't the only time the center celebrates. Look for upcoming events throughout the entire year.

The center, of course, wants to thank those who have made it all happen. "The following month when we have our 50th annual benefit dinner, we will be honoring the founding groups -- the Junior Center of Art and Science, the Junior League, and the East Bay Children's Theater," says Edy Chan, president of the board of trustees.

The center's mission statement says that it "encourages children's active wonder and creative responses through artistic and scientific exploration of their natural urban environment . . . (developing) citizens who value nature and appreciate the importance of art and science in their community." I can think of few things more important.

Leone Evans has seen, with her nearly 50 years of service, that children are becoming more fascinated by their environment, popularizing new programs like one focused on astronomy.

Art "has always been incredibly powerful for the children," she says, "but now they're even more interested in their environment and surroundings than they used to be."

Contra Costa Times
Knight Ridder
(925) 943-8270
www.contracostatimes.com