By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Organizers of a new faith-based youth center hope support will continue to build among area churches.

The Root Cellar, a Portland-based Christian youth center, has closed on its new building in downtown Lewiston. The group plans to dedicate the the old cement block building at 89 Birch St. on Saturday with speeches and a plea for help.

Overall, the group still needs $700,000 in cash, donations and help to make the youth center a reality.

“So, even if people just bring hammers, they’re helping to pay the bills,” said Community Director Cliff Brown.

Brown hopes plenty of people with hammers show up on the following Saturday for a demolition day. They’ll gather to knock down the old interior and tear up the old concrete floor. Plans are to put down a new floor – it will cost $50,000 for a new concrete floor or $30,000 to put down wood – and build new interior walls.

“We want the children’s areas and a few bathrooms finished by October,” Brown said. “We need new windows, new doors and a new electrical system so we can turn things on without getting killed.”

They can do all that work, once they have the money.

“We raised just enough to close on the property, about $60,000” Brown said. “Now our bank balance is at about $37.”

The original Root Cellar began on Portland’s Munjoy Hill in 1984, offering teen and after-school programs. Since then, it has grown to include food distribution, English as a second language classes, community dentistry and counseling.

Brown effectively grew up in the Portland ministry, attending Friday and Saturday night events and going on Root Cellar-sponsored camps and skiing trips when he was 13.

“It really gave me a connection that I couldn’t find anywhere else,” he said. “I didn’t have a dad at home and my mom was working two jobs. I wasn’t interested in much until I started, and then it gave my life a little meaning.”

Brown attended college in Missouri and worked for a Christian mission there for 12 years before returning to the Root Cellar.

This is the first time the center has expanded since it started. The new building is near the corner of Birch and Bartlett streets and within walking distance of Lewiston High and Longley Elementary schools.

Brown said he hopes the Lewiston program echoes the Root Cellar he remembers.

“It should be exactly like the Root Cellar was on Munjoy Hill when I was there,” he said. The area is similar, he said.

“There’s a lot of single-parent families, a good amount of crime and a lot of need,” he said.

His goal now is to enlist local churches in helping. The ministry will be entirely funded by donations, he said. That means local churches need to donate their time and talents to remake the building. And it doesn’t end there.

“Every program we offer is sponsored by one of the churches, as part of their ministry,” he said. For example, one Portland-area church offers internationally themed programs for kids every other Saturday at the Munjoy Hill center.

“We want them to come up with the programs they think are needed,” Brown said.