Photo by Doug Koontz Judy Cheng is opening the CPL Youth Center at the Brunswick City Park. She is shown here at Emerald Garden, the Brunswick restaurant she owns with her husband.
	Details CPL Youth Center is open to all children and teenagers ages 8-18 in the area, including those from Lovettsville, Va., Knoxville and southern Washington County. It will be located at the Brunswick City Park building, 655 E. Potomac St., Brunswick. The center's website is cplyouthcenter.org. For information, check the site or call 240-344-6648. ——— If You Go The Brunswick Ambulance Company at 200 W. Potomac St. will help the center with a pancake breakfast fundraiser from 7 to 11 a.m. Saturday. The cost is $5 per person, $2.50 for children under 6.

She is starting the CPL Youth Center at the Brunswick City Park building with classes in martial arts and Chinese language, and once-a-week tutoring sessions for young people ages 8 to 18.

CPL stands for care, protect, love, but it's the schedule, not the name, that she hopes will attract children and teens.

"I love children," said the mother of two. "I care about them."

Cheng has been trying to get a youth center started in Brunswick for the past year. Her efforts got a boost last month when the city council agreed to let her use the City Park building for free this summer.

A day care center uses half of the building; Cheng will have use of the other half.

Classes start Monday. John Scott, a martial arts master, will teach in the Kung Fu style for sixth- graders through high school seniors. Chinese language classes will be taught to students ages 8-18.

If volunteers are willing to chaperone, the youth center will open every Monday from 6 to 10 p.m. for games and movies.

Cheng hopes to start small and expand. The martial arts class will be Monday and Thursday afternoons, while the Chinese class is offered Mondays. Fees run about $2 per class and cover liability insurance and supplies. She hopes to open the classes to students who want to learn, but can't afford the fees.

The Brunswick Ambulance Company will help the center with a pancake breakfast fundraiser Saturday.

Cheng plans to expand the class schedule in the fall, depending on how many children and teens sign up for classes, and how many adults volunteer. Cheng is working with Geri Reynolds, events coordinator for the city, and Brunswick resident Annaliza Mantgen to get the center off the ground.

Cheng also plans workshops in web design and modeling. She's had a little experience in both. She worked as a fashion model in Hong Kong for three years before she and her husband came to the U.S. Her 20-year-old daughter, a sophomore at Penn State, will help.

The youth center will be a welcome addition to Brunswick, Mayor Carroll Jones said. At least one other youth center has been tried in recent years, he said, but that one failed because too few adults volunteered.

"I don't know what the ratio should be," he said. "If you have too many adults, the kids don't want to come, but if you don't have enough, there's no control."

Brunswick offers an array of athletic activities for teenagers, but for those interested in other hobbies, Jones said there is not much available. The success of the center will depend in part on the willingness of young people to take advantage of the activities it offers.

"How many are willing to walk away from their computers and Xboxes to participate in other activities?" he said. "If we don't try, we'll never know."

Cheng is offering young people a chance to learn something they might not otherwise, he said.

"You've got to start somewhere."