A nondescript blue door with a makeshift sign on a window pane marks the entrance. Up three floors is a wooden door where just inside comes the voice of a child singing "Over the Rainbow." One can also hear the sound of a game of pool, and children laughing over a good joke. This is Crossroads Youth Center, a place where youth come for guidance, help in school, or to have a good time. The founder of the center is Deborah Landry, a Saco resident who a year ago turned the idea of a youth center for latchkey kids into a reality.

Deborah Landry moved to Saco in 1982, from where she grew up in Dexter, Maine. She wanted to move to southern Maine, to a place where there was a good school system for her two daughters. Over the next few years, her daughters attended Thornton Academy and Deb settled into a job in a private sector of healthcare. Deb studied business in college, with a minor in religion. In 2000, she and her husband Darrin started their own company, called Bryson Taylor Incorporated. Darrin travels around the country teaching the software he uses for eye care. While he is away a lot of time, Deb and Darrin have kept a very close relationship. Deb now has two more children, both boys, aged eight and nine.

Deb has loved working with children ever since she was one herself. Deb also is very involved and interested in the arts. Both of her daughters were involved in the arts and most especially music at Thornton Academy. Her husband Darrin has a certificate in Christian education, and has teaches Sunday school at the First Parish Congregational Church. He came up with the idea of a youth center for the kids that he was involved with. At that point, Deb thought, "Wow, we should really start a youth center." They originally wanted to start the youth center for the church. However, this was before the church burned tragically in August of 2000. It was then planned to be an after school program for all teenagers and high school students to hang out. After the school shootings and the Columbine tragedy, they decided that they needed to do some more research, and that they needed to see just what was involved in starting a successful youth center.

After some months of research, Deb and Darrin found that there had been a few youth centers started in Saco in the past that fell apart. Deb remembers, "We kept thinking what could we do to make it different and we figured out we should have a place where teens can come and do what they want to do, as long as they don't break the rules, to be able to hang out, not cost them anything, not cost the parents anything, but, to have a place that keeps them safe and secure."

In their research, Deb and Darrin found that most juvenile crime happens between 2:30 and 5:30, Monday through Friday so they knew that would have to be key hours at the center. They also knew they wanted to keep the place free. "We decided that there was always a need for it; the way to get funding was through nonprofit. We could have charged admission and membership fees and made it a business but we aren't looking to make money, we're just looking to have this place because it's something that we believe in."

To start off, Deb organized a board of directors and also a youth advisory board. "The youth advisory board is made up of 3 teens of different ages, so that I could get the feel for what teens want to do." On the board is 18 year old Jeff Christenbury, 16 year old Danielle Sullivan, and 14 year old Erika Meiler. "I chose them specifically because I knew them to be responsible people that would take this seriously, and they have been great, " says Landry. The youth advisory board serves as a conduit from the teens of Saco to Deb.

After coming up with a wish list, Deb and Darrin n started looking for a location. While they wanted their own space, they didn't have the money for it. They finally ended up agreeing to start the center at the Saco Recreation Department building on Common Street in Saco. On January 3, 2001, Crossroads Youth Center opened its doors for the first time.

As one would assume, starting a youth center isn't cheap. To start the program, it had to be financially backed by the Landrys personally. Deb took a year off from the consulting company to get the place started. As they settled in at Crossroads, Deb started brainstorming ideas for funding. Her first idea, was to tap into grant money. She learned how to write for grants and she hopes that at some point she'll receive some money from one. Another source of funding is private donations, where people give anywhere from 20 to 1,000 dollars. Deb says that private donations account for about 1/6 of their total money taken in. The main source of funding comes from the plays and art camps that they put on.

This is the second year that Crossroads Youth Center has been open, and it's also the second year that Crossroads has put on a children's play for the community. Last winter, Crossroads presented "The Sound of Music." The play had a cast of 50 people and was put on at Burns School in Saco. The play was a huge success, as it involved many children in the community. This winter, Crossroads presented the classic "Wizard of Oz", at City Theater in Biddeford. The cast included over 70 people, most of whom were children. The play was performed for three weeks, and raised thousands of dollars for Crossroads.

In addition to the plays, last summer Deb started a camp for children that was mostly surrounded around the arts. Deb recalls, "The camp was developed for teenagers to have something to do in the summer if they didn't have a job, because they were too old for baby sitters. I developed a camp for counselors, and we'd have some kids come in to do some arts and crafts, or to mentor. So it kind of blew up in a good way, and we ended up having 75 kids ages 7-11, 15 counselors, ages 12-16, and 10 teachers, who all had at least a Bachelors degree in the art that they taught." At the camp, there are classes in art, dance, acting, and music. This year, Deb ran two different camps during the school vacations, which filled to capacity. To account for the funding for the teachers, the children were charged admission, but learned a lot from the experience.

In addition to all the things that Deb does for Crossroads, she recently joined the Communities for Children Organization. Communities for Children is a statewide initiative of the Maine Children's Cabinet, designed to create a partnership between state government and local communities working to promote positive child and youth development for children ages 2-21. Also, Deb serves as an Americorp VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) Volunteer. "They wanted to hire a VISTA worker, but they hadn't found one in 2 years, so I decided to take a leave of absence from my business, and become that person. A VISTA worker is basically like a Peace Corps worker, except in America." Doing this shows that Deb is not only concerned about Crossroads, but also building programs for the entire community.

For the future, Deb envisions her own Youth Arts Center building. She would like to have a game room, art rooms, and a stage to put on her plays. Currently, Deb has about 50 people registered at Crossroads, and has an average attendance of 14 kids a day.

When asked to sum up the Crossroads experience in one sentence, Deb focuses in on her mission statement, "Crossroads is a community based youth program providing a safe and secure environment that promotes self-esteem in the lives of the youth and teens of the Saco area through the arts."

The youth of Saco are at crossroads in their lives, and Deborah Landry has made a huge positive impact on many of them. The best part is that the best is yet to come.