“Extreme Makeover” Creates New Teen Room for Boys & Girls Club

The teens who go to the now have a nice new rec room thanks to some generous donors and volunteers.

The Boys & Girls Club held a grand opening ceremony for the new rec room on Thursday afternoon. The room, on the southern end of the building at 123 Jefferson Street, has been dubbed “The Club,” and features a wall mounted flat screen television with video game consoles, a piano, a ping pong table and pool table, computers, desks, shelves with books and board games, cabinets, sofas, plush chairs, plants and hardwood flooring.

The rec room grew out of talks beginning several months ago between the Boys & Girls Club and local businessman Joe Mindak, who is proprietor of Tisha Creative, publisher of hMAG magazine and is a member of the Hoboken Rotary.

Mindak had had an idea to organize a construction “extreme makeover,” similar to those found on the namesake ABC television show, for a local charitable group in need of one. In talking with the Boys & Girls Club, Mindak had heard that the room which would become the Club had formerly served as a recording studio but was since vacated and in need of a new purpose.

"One of the things when we started hMAG was that we wanted it to be involved in the community," Mindak said. "So when we heard there was a need here we said let's just fix it up."

With many teens enrolled in its after school program, the Boys & Girls Club decided to use the opportunity to carve a space for the older children.

"Teens need a place of their own where they can socialize and relax," said Gary Greenberg, the executive director of the Boys & Girls Club.

Mindak didn't quite know what the end result of the makeover would be when he started. On top of the initial support of hMAG and the Rotary, he recruited some local interior designers, including Kristin Manco and Christina Voutsinas, and later Robert Jenny, who suggested ideas.

Then Mindak recruited a friend of his, Lori Heidenry, who took on the informal role of project manager, and who urged the team to really make the room into something special. Mindak took to referring to Heidenry as “the glue.”

“I joined a meeting and then one thing led to another, and I realized a lot of things needed to be taken care of,” Heidenry said. She explained that the team kept finding parts of the room that needed to be repaired or replaced, such as the floor, walls, ceiling and fixtures in the adjacent bathroom.

Heidenry and her husband John, who runs a property management firm, contributed financially and donated their labor. She also secured support from Home Depot, plus promises of the company's help on future projects at the Boys & Girls Club building.

Heidenry also helped recruit contributions from Hoboken businesses, including that of Studio Printworks, a wallpaper manufacturer with a factory at 51 Harrison Street.

“We're always excited to be a part of the community,” said Studio's owner Dennis Shah, who like Mindak is also a Rotarian. Shah helped pick out the wallpaper for the rec room from his company's Great Contemporary Artists line, one with a white background highlighted by blue clusters of words.

“I thought it would be cool to have writing on the wall," Shah said.

Several of the donors and volunteers responsible for the new rec room attended the grand opening, as did Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who cut the ceremonial ribbon.

“This is absolutely amazing,” Zimmer said. “I'm excited we have the community coming together like this.”