Teen center open Saturday nights in Ship Bottom

For teenagers looking for something to do or friends to hang out with, The Swell at Grace Calvary Church is a teen center in Ship Bottom where young people can stop in anytime between 8 and 11 p.m. on Saturday nights in July and August. The nondenominational teen night unites local and visiting teens from sixth to 12th grades for a fun-filled night of games, prizes, music and snacks.

The three-hour event is a come-and-go-as-you-please type gig. Feel free to mingle among game stations and tournaments, craft tables and henna tattoo “shops.”

If you’re interested in a little competition, Foosball and Ping Pong tournaments will take place throughout the night. For those who are a little less competitive, join in a friendly Wii or Xbox 360 video game. Try your hand at some good, old-fashioned arts and crafts, or just come out for the relaxation and social aspects of the night!

Photo via 2twenty2.org

The snack shack will be open for business, offering candy, water, juice and chocolate milk. Prices range from 25 cents to $1. Snacks are sold at cost and do not benefit the church or youth center.

New this year is a door prize that will be up for grabs for anyone who enters the building before the drawing is held, at 9 p.m. Prizes can include body boards, professional flying kites and gift certificates to local restaurants and surf shops.

“We’ve tried to partner with local businesses by asking them to advertise for us,” said Youth Pastor Casey Ellis. “We put up posters, and in exchange they either donate or we buy gift certificates or merchandise from their businesses to give away as prizes here. So it draws families into local businesses, and we get advertising with them. We’re trying to establish partnerships, and so far it’s been really well received,” he added happily.

Ellis initiated The Swell when he moved to New Jersey four years ago and took the job as youth pastor at Grace Calvary Church. Having spent many of his summers with his dad, who was stationed in the military in Hawaii, he relied heavily on the community and friendships he found within the teen center on base – a memory that stuck when he moved to the East Coast and realized Long Beach Island didn’t always have a lot to offer young teens, especially without cost.

“Working with teenagers here on the Island, that memory popped back into my head one afternoon during the summer, and I thought about what that might look like on Long Beach Island,” Ellis reminisced. “Seeing this influx of teenagers come to the Island and just observing what’s available for them here – there’s only so much to do, and most of it costs money.

“The youth team here at the church thought that it might be a cool idea to use our building and our space for the community,” he continued. “We have weekly meetings with teens throughout the year, and we offer games and Ping Pong and Foosball and that kind of stuff, that they get to enjoy all year long. But I thought, ‘We have these things, and we have this space, so why not open it up to the community with all these teens that might be bored in the evenings, or may not want to go play another round of mini golf?’” he said with a laugh.

For Ellis, this seemed like a call from God, something he is very familiar with. Ellis had originally planned on pursuing a computer career. But God redirected him, he said, and he soon found himself teaching English to elementary school children at a Christian school in Japan. Having worked with kids at different youth groups and summer camps, Ellis knew he was meant to spread the word through teens, not to sit and stare at a computer screen all day.

After returning from Japan, Ellis immediately enrolled in the Frontier School of the Bible in Wyoming. When he graduated a few years later, he asked God to lead him in the direction where he was meant to help people. That’s when he applied for and got the job working with teens at Grace Calvary Church.

The Swell has become a big hit throughout the summer months. Ellis said more than 90 students showed up one night last year. He hopes this year’s teen center will interest just as many if not more youths, and he hopes to turn the third annual event into a fourth and fifth annual event.

“That was pretty big for us because this has only been going on for three years, and our building isn’t that big,” said Ellis. “We don’t normally see those kinds of numbers of young people come through our doors, especially during the winter. So it was pretty surprising. I hope to see some local kids from the mainland come to LBI, too. Then we can continue to be an influence in their community throughout the year.

“Primarily, most of our students who come for youth group during the fall and winter come from the Manahawkin-Barnegat area anyway. So we hope to have that same kind of impact (during the summer), but we haven’t done too much advertising on the mainland yet,” he added.

Nights at The Swell always end with a prayer, but kids can opt out by just listening if they’re uncomfortable.

For more information about The Swell or the church’s year-round youth group meetings, visit http://www.gracecalvary.net/ or call 609-494-7777.


This article was published in The SandPaper.