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24 Terrace Review. —— Wednesday, November 13, 1991

Well good-bye, Dolly's

- py Diana English

Dolly’s, the weekly teen dance
hall held at the Terrace Inn, closed
its doors Oct, 18, and at least one
local resident is angry.

Pat Sorensen is a Terrace Inn
employee and was, until recently,
the manager of the 180-seat cab-
aret for teenagers. She says the
teen dances were started at the
hotel last February by the previous
hotel manager, Robert Q. Smith.

The hotel is now under new man-
agement and the new managers do:

not agree with the concept of a
teen dance hall in the inn. -.
Sorensen, who also works in the
banquet/catering department of the
hotel, says that the busy season for
that department is now starting,
and the hotel wanted the space
_ Dolly’s was using as an additional
banquet room.
Sorensen planned to make the
last dance at Dolly’s, slated for the
end of October, a special one and

solicited suggestions from the kids
on what they could do. She says
many of the suggestions she
received back were "don’t close"
and "please stay open". Sorensen
says that on the morning of Friday,
Oct. 18, she was told by the man-
agement that Dolly’s was closed as
of that date. There would not be a
dance that night, nor would there

- be a special last dance.

When they were open, Dolly’s
regular hours were 7:30 p.m. to
1:00 am, Friday and Saturday
nights. Teens were charged $5 at
the door, and once inside could not
leave and come back without pay-
ing the cover charge again. The
tule kept kids from going outside
to consume alcohol or drugs and
then coming back in. Besides
taking the admission money, the
people working the door were also
ensuring no alcohol came into the
place and keeping drunks out.
People who were drunk were told
to "come back when you're

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straight".

Sorensen says when Dolly’s was
first started there were three
employees: herself, one person at
the door and another working the
floor. She was behind the counter
mixing virgin" non-alcoholic
drinks. Shortly after that there
were two employees, herself and
the person working the door. She
started using some of the older
kids as floor walkers, to "police"

the dance. When her regular

employee went back to school in
September, Sorensen started using
the kids themselves at the door as
well as floor walking.

She originally started with four
volunteers and gradually worked
up to twelve at the time Dolly’s
was shut down. Sorensen says that
the more involved in the operation
of the dance hall the kids became,
the more interested they were.
Many kids were begging to
become volunteers and taking an
interest in all aspects of the oper-
ation, including the music and the
lights. She says the kids felt that
Dolly’s belonged to them and were

" happy to take care of it, working

both as volunteers and for pay.
Sorensen says Dolly’s was a start
in the right direction for some of
the kids, and she is sorry to sec it
end. She says that many of the
volunteers she had working for
her, and doing a very good job of
it, were the so-called problem kids,
the ones known to the police and
to the other establishments in
town.
Sorensen says that by the time
Dolly’s closed its doors for good,
many of the kids had starled to
trust her and open up to her. Some
of them were even phoning her at

Popular teen dance hall closed —

says you get back what you give to

the kids and the only way to gain |
their trust is to treat them with the |

same respect you would anyone

-else, and to not be judgemental.

Sorensen says that what upsets
her most is that teenagers losing
have lost a safe, drug- and alcohol-
free place, where they didn’t have
to worry about an excuse not to
drink or do drugs. She says that
there were only two incidents of
alcohol found on the premises
between February and September.
She also says that while there were
sometimes very inebriated patrons,
it was not a regular occurrence.
She says the problems that the
town and the police were seeing
outside the hotel were not her
patrons, but the kids who had not
been allowed into Dolly’s because
they were drunk.

Sorensen says that from what she
can see, the curfew by-law that is
currently under review is next to
useless for most of the kids it is
supposed to affect. She says these
are street kids, many from
dysfunctional families. She says
that taking away the teenager’s
safe hangout on one hand, and
insisting they are off of the streets
by 10:00 on the other hand, is not
going to work for the kids who do
not have a good home life. Soren-

‘sen says that working for Dolly’s

has brought her to believe that
Terrace needs a place for teens, a
place like Dolly’s, but perhaps a
little bit more; some place they can
feel good about going to.

While Crystal’s Place, next to the
Pentecostal Church, is a good idea,
it has very limited hours and

Pat Sorensen: Teens have
lost.a safe, drug- and alcohol-
free place.

games, Sorensen would like to see
a place for the kids that is more
than just a dance hall or arcade.

She would like to see a place ©

where the kids could go after
school, in the evenings and on
weekends, The place she envisions
would have the kids involved in
the day-to-day operation and hav-
ing the greatest input on how it
was run.

Sorensen says the place she

would like to see for the kids

would have a concession, perhaps
an arcade, designed to attract some
of the kids, especially the younger
ones, from other hangouts. She
says she would like to see the kids
carry some of the responsibility for
the day-to-day running of the

operation,
Sorensen says she has
approached 16-37 Ventures (Com-

munity Futures) about money to
get started on a place for the teen-
agers but was told they were not
interested and the banks would not
be interested. It was not a money-
making proposition.

In talking to other people, Soren-
sen realizes that setting up a non-
profit society could work better.
She would like to hear from any
other people concerned with the
teenagers on the street who would
like to share in her vision. She can
be reached at 638-8005.

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