Harbor Gateway community center opens

After two years of work, the Cheryl Green Community Youth Center in Harbor Gateway is open and ready to serve the community.

After a huge community push on ShareFest's Sixth Annual Workday (that you can read about here), the Boys & Girls Club is now running programs after the center's recent opening.

ShareFest, Janice Hahn, L.A. City officials and the entire Harbor Gateway community came together to unify the neighborhood and create a safe place for kids after the shooting of Cheryl Green more than two years ago. But her memory has caused the community galvanized to create  a safer environment for its youth.

The hand-painted sign outside the center

Here is a piece of an article the Daily Breeze ran about the opening of the center:

Charlene Lovett walked up the ramp Monday, stopped, looked at the lettering on the wall, and began to cry.

Two-and-a-half years after her 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Green, was killed in Harbor Gateway allegedly because of her race, Lovett's dream of a community center for the neighborhood children had finally arrived.

Lovett took part in the opening of the Boys & Girls Club Harbor Gateway/Torrance Cheryl Green Community Youth Center.

The center at Del Amo Boulevard and Denker Avenue is just blocks from where Cheryl died, and takes the place of a dirt lot.

"Cheryl's spirit is here," Lovett said. "I'm looking at all the young kids here. It's amazing that we are here together - Hispanic and black."

You can read the rest of the article here.