Marimn Health unveils future youth center

PLUMMER — It’s a place where hope might reside.

Kids in Plummer spent Tuesday afternoon alongside Marimn Health leaders to sneak a futuristic first view of the organization’s plans for its Youth Center, a 32,202-square-foot complex designed to provide services and recreation for the community’s children.

“What has inspired us is seeing trends with our youth,” Marimn Chief Executive Officer Helo Hancock said. “We saw the trends that prompted us to take action. So often, our area’s youth don’t have the resources for the challenges they face.”

Those challenges, Hancock said, include drugs, boredom and unstable home lives, three conditions he said the Youth Center will soon alleviate.

“Kids need a safe place to go,” he added. “Plenty of kids are caught up in a cycle so destructive to themselves and the community. When we looked at the raw data, we were able to see some pretty startling trends. Those trends led to surveys, which ultimately led to people coming together to take action.”

That action manifested in designs for the new center, which will break ground in July. The facility is expected to open in September 2020. Architect Keith Comes of NAC, the firm tasked with designing the project, said he sees the community’s commitment to the Youth Center as unusually inspiring.

“We really admired the way [Marimn Health] sees health,” he said. “They see an opportunity to help curb this trend of kids who might be hungry, or they might be bored, or their family situation might not be ideal. This gives the kids some long-term solutions to help them prosper. It’s strong, organic preventative care.”

Those solutions will include a family waterpark that will boast a waterslide, a lazy river and an elevated climbing wall. (Hancock insists jumping from the wall will be encouraged.) The facility will also include a basketball court, a football field that will also serve as a soccer field and powwow grounds, softball and baseball fields, as well as outdoor playgrounds, fitness areas and space set aside for partnering youth programs like the Boys & Girls Club.

Children at the event also got a firsthand look at some of the tools they might enjoy in its technology center. Organizers gave each child an opportunity to explore the new designs through a virtual reality station.

“It’s one more way we can help kids interact with their future,” according to Jaycee Gaudy, Youth Programs supervisor. “Many of these kids have never had a chance to experience something like this.”

The $16 million project, while mostly funded through Marimn Health, will still seek out fundraising efforts later this year, so the future that Tuesday’s participants experienced is not certain.

“So many things in our children’s lives are not set in stone,” Hancock said. “We knew we needed to do more, because we see the children in our community as bright, intelligent kids tackling some adult challenges. We can tackle preventative health through different means. This will be open to everyone, but it’s really designed to be a launch pad for kids.”

Heather Keen, Marimn Health’s director of strategic development, added that future fundraising endeavors will be critical to the project’s success.

“What ultimately matters is, these kids need a safe place to go,” she said. “This facility, just like every Coeur d’Alene Tribal program, will be for everybody. It will take community action to make this a place the community will call home.”