Raising Teen Spirit

I think (Arch Street) is the most important facility in town

Kyle Silver is executive director of the Arch Street teen center, a nonprofit organization that provides Greenwich teens with recreational activities and leadership opportunities in a drug-and alcohol-free environment. Silver worked as a film director in California before moving to Connecticut eight years ago to work at the teen center. He recently organized Diana Ross' concert at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park.

How successful was Diana Ross' June 24 concert? Was it difficult to organize?
We took in $140,000 in ticket sales, and the PR you receive from that - I don't think you can put a price tag on that. As far as the difficulty organizing it, we didn't really think about it, we just did it. We knew a week ahead, that Wednesday that she called was when we found out, just like everybody else found out. So I just called every volunteer every board member that was available to put it together and we did it.

How will the teen center use the money raised from the concert?
every dollar we raise is independently raise, privately raised through corporate sponsorship. We had an operating budget that was running a deficit, and this (the Ross concert) will clear that for the year. And then the rest of the money, we are deciding how to use it. We are hoping to do a recording studio. We have a lot of ideas in the works, but it's going to be well spent.

How important is a center like Arch Street to a town like Greenwich
I think this is the most important facility in town, without a doubt. Since we've opened 12 years ago, other towns have followed our lead, and we get calls on a weekly basis from people that are opening similar facilities across the country. Darien has their facility. New Canaan has opened since we've opened. Westport has opened since we've opened. Wilton is opening in the fall and we've acted as a prototype for those other centers as they have opened, and as they have built their programs they give us a call.

What kind of services does the center provide for teens?
We try not to offer programs we see being offered elsewhere so that we can help make a well-rounded community and a well-rounded atmosphere for the teenagers to participate in. We will be having our youth leadership conference this year. We have that every other year, and then every other year, based on which year the leadership conference is not falling on, we have an AIDS conference on sexual awareness and STDs.

What is your leadership conference like?
It depends. We had Ben and Jerry from Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. We've had the cast members from "Dawson's Creek." We've had the cast members from "The Real World." We usually use someone who is the teen icon of the minute to be the hook, and then we build the program around the keynote speakers. The year we had the "Dawson's Creek" cast, we also had two people from the Columbine High School, because that was the year the Columbine High School situation took place, and had the student body president and the homecoming queen for the year talk to these students about the reality of that situation versus what they were reading in the media and the comparison of the two schools. We tie in the seriousness and the teenage shtick.

Any future plans to expand or any big projects in the works?
We have a huge project in the works with Tommy Hilfiger that we are working through the details on, and once we get the green light we will be making nationwide coverage again.