By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Backers of a planned Birch Street youth center hope a $50,000 challenge from a local couple will spur more donations.

Dale Carlson and other supporters of the Root Cellar will hit the local church circuit, trying to build support for a Christian youth center in downtown Lewiston.

“We’ve been hearing for years that there’s a lot of need for this kind of thing down there,” said Carlson, executive director of the Portland-based organization. “We’re looking for people willing to make it really happen.”

That’s where an anonymous local couple come in, he said. They’ve agreed to donate $50,000 if Carlson can come up with another $50,000 in cash donations. That will be enough to pay the next mortgage payment on the building and for concrete and materials to finish the floor.

“Once we’re ready to do the floor, we can do the heat, and then the framing and the Sheetrock and everything else,” he said.

He said volunteers would be speaking at local churches trying to drum up donations. They have until March 24.

Carlson announced plans for the Lewiston center one year ago. The Root Cellar bought the old cement block building at 89 Birch St. and began looking for volunteers and donations to make it a reality.

It’s gotten a good response. The Maine Oil Dealers Association has agreed to install the heating system and local contractors have agreed to help frame the building’s interior, install the Sheetrock and new windows and pour a concrete floor.

But it’s been a much slower process than Carlson first thought. He’d hoped to be substantially done and moved in by October.

“I guess I’ve always been overly optimistic about things like this, but I’m still going to keep going until it’s done,” he said. “It’s going to happen, that’s all I can say.”

Overall, the renovation needs about $700,000 in cash and in-kind donations. The donated labor and goods amount to about $115,000, he said.

“What we need now is cash,” he said.

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.

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.

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