For many children, the Page Youth Center is a place to have fun. The gymnasium and its grounds serve as a safe haven to develop skills on and off the court for thousands of youths year-round. For a kid named Kristopher “K.C.” Carlsen, it was much more than that.
“The loss that he went through was incredible; we could see his pain but he kept a stiff upper lift,” Wana Dowell, PYC’s development director, said of the youth who made the center his second home after his mother died when he was 15. Carlsen remained a fixture at the facility, 4050 Hollister Ave., as an inspirational young adult.
“He gave to the kids here an example to follow. He was an amazing young man, full of joy despite the hardships he went through.”
Carlsen used the center, founded in 1984, to escape the pressures of life by honing his skills on the court and developing a love for basketball. During that challenging time, the PYC staff transformed from Carlsen’s friends to family.
“We felt like he was our kid who grew up here — you couldn’t help it,” Dowell said. “Every woman felt motherly to K.C. Few people had that glow about them and that outgoing personality. He had an unparalleled sense of caring for someone his age.”
Carlsen worked with the center throughout his life, first as a referee and later as a coach. He would always come into PYC executive director Bob Yost’s office and rattle off fundraising ideas and look for ways he could help. He explained how the center affected him in a speech he gave during Donor Appreciation Day at the PYC.
“He spoke so eloquently about what it was like to grow up when his mother died and what it was like to grow up with hardships and yet to keep winning in life,” Dowell said. “He said how he got so much joy from the Page Center. He said it was his safe playground.”
Carlsen’s life was cut short when he died Dec. 4 while lobster diving with his father and friends off Santa Cruz Island. The 27-year-old Santa Barbara resident became submerged and his equipment malfunctioned, and he never resurfaced, according to authorities.
But Carlsen had served the center up to his last days, even as he and many other coaches nearly lost the opportunity to provide for Santa Barbara’s youths when the center faced dire financial circumstances in 2002.
“We found ourselves trying to figure out how we make payroll,” said Dowell, who ran a grassroots campaign with Yost to get the word out in December 2002. “We didn’t think we could fail.”
Yost said the center was $300,000 in debt, and if it wasn’t for generous people in the community and a Santa Barbara County bailout, the PYC wouldn’t be here today.
“We were close enough to closing that the only things that saved us were the county and families,” he said. “It was exciting to see the community start backing you when we said we may have to close our doors. The support was symbolic of what the Page Center has meant to the community.”
Dowell said that watching families contribute even the smallest amounts gave the staff hope.
“We all pitched in, and it did work. It was wonderful to watch people come upstairs with a check for 20 bucks or what they could afford,” she said. “The community rallied because they didn’t want to see it go away. It was really quite wonderful. They knew the place was worth saving.”
The center also offers scholarships to families who can’t afford to participate in programs. The K.C. Carlsen Scholarship Fund has been established to give youths a chance to play basketball.
“It will help a lot of kids,” Yost said of the Carlsen fund. “The way the economy is, the need is greater and greater.”
Many parents have expressed that they feel their children are safe at the center.
“I don’t know what I would do without the Page Center,” Santa Barbara mother Patricia Nevins said. “I tell my husband I don’t know where my kids would be. I know they are safe here. They would be lost without it. I don’t know what they would do with their time, and I thank God it’s here.”
Although there are other places for the youths to exercise, such as Elings Park, there is a high demand for places to play. The center is always busy, and people are coming from farther away to drop off their kids, Yost said.
“Where would kids go, where would you put a couple thousand kids in the community?” he said. “There’s no substitute for it. Places serving youth are pretty full.”
Larry Zajic, a local junior high school teacher and youth basketball/baseball coach, said the center serves an integral role for families and kids. He recently saw two of his former players playing three-on-three at the center.
“The whole basketball program is a huge positive in those kids’ lives,” Zajic said. “They don’t go on to the NBA, but they learn about a healthy lifestyle and make lifelong friends. It’s a wonderful asset to the community.”
PYC program director Meagan Gnekow said the center is unique in its competitive leagues offered to children, high school students and adults. The teams are formed through four drafts, so kids aren’t grouped with familiar faces and the talent is spread.
“We go through a week of tryouts through every decision. We rank players on different things like ball handling and shooting, so teams are balanced and competition is a lot better,” Gnekow said. “It allows the kids to meet kids outside of their schools — somebody they would never get to know if never played in a different league.”
The PYC offers a variety of classes and programs for youths, adults and seniors. There are boys’ and girls’ basketball leagues, volleyball, development leagues (skills building), bowling, aerobics, badminton, ping pong, indoor soccer and performing arts. The center also rents out the gym to club, high school and college teams. Click here for more information or call 805.967.8778.
Yost said the center may seem like an ordinary gym with scars on the wall and squeaky bleachers, but for people like Carlsen, it’s a means to “keep good kids good.”
“He was a good example of a kid who graduated through our program and felt a need to help others,” Yost said. “He’s the shining example of a Page Center youth.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.