Summer Enrollment

Finally! I have enrollment forms for summer. We are so excited and already making great plans. This is going to be the best summer ever…

Groundbreaking! … Finally!

I am so excited to have had such a great turnout and show of support for the new building! We had over sixty wonderful people from our community come out and support us on this truly momentous occasion. I know it is only a fraction of the people who made this all possible but being mid-afternoon, it was hard for people to get away during the day. So I would like to thank the people who attended and everyone who has ever donated to the LCYC. I have a general list but it is simply impossible to list everyone as there are so many. We would like to offer a special thanks to our top donors, First Presbyterian Church, the Lehman Foundation, and their trustees, Bluebonnet electric, Mike York, Capital Area Housing Financial (Rep. Maurice Pitts), numerous local churches ( and a couple not so local), banks, and hundreds and hundreds of personal donations from all over this country!

We also could not have done it without the help guidance and support of lots of contractors and engineers. We would like to especially thank Jason Locke from JB Locke Construction, Greg Davis from Tobias and Davis architecture planning, Steven Kieschnick from K and K Custom Green homes, and Mike Jatzlau from Jatzlau Construction. These all worked with Larry Orsag together to get the final plans that we have today.

We are so thankful for this community for all of their support and I look forward to more in the future. There is work to be done in order for us to open for the upcoming school year. If you have any skills in painting or talents that would help us lower costs or even just some time to help move things please reach out to us! the time has come for volunteers. We will still need the help and support of this community to get things done, but I know we are all up for the challenge and together we will make Lee County a better place.

Donna Orsag Center for Excellence

It has come to my attention that there is a little confusion with all the new names we have been throwing around. There are many great things coming ahead for Lee County in the near future. The most recent being the new building for the Lee County Youth Center. The Lee county youth Center is breaking ground so soon!! We are excited!

However, the building itself will be called the “Donna Orsag Center for Excellence”. The reason for the different names is twofold really. We wanted to honor Donna and all of her work, the LCYC was a pet project of hers. She was such a driving force in our community and really got things done, she had many projects and people she was constantly working on. She was a truly wonderful person but that isn’t what this blog is about.

The reason that we decided to give the building a name of its own is really that we have so many future plans. The first of which is the Lee County Youth Center. But this building will eventually house so much more! It will truly be a community center there to serve our community. We plan on having food services for an evening meal, a place for high school kids to go to have a safe place to be on the weekends, sometimes events but sometimes just a safe place to “hang out”. Even eventually adult ESL. We plan on hosting so many community events and events to help support the community. It is almost like an umbrella for many projects and events.

If you have any ideas or would like to volunteer or even just brainstorm an idea you have had that you think may help the community in some way please reach out to us. you can email us on the contact us page here, our email at leecountyyouthcenter@gmail.com, or by calling or texting us at 979/542-4100

Groundbreaking Ceremony

I am so excited to let you all know that we will have a groundbreaking ceremony for our new building on March 10th at 2 pm. It will be held at our future location on Dallas street at Simmang Park. The Lee County Youth Center is scheduled to be open for the next school year (2022-2023), we are going to start taking applications over the summer. We are so excited to work with the youth of the community again! I am trying to fill some really big shoes left by Donna Orsag, I know it really isn't possible but I have committed to giving it my best. I am aware that many of you worked with her in the past and I would love to work with you through the LCYC. Also, I am collectively reaching out to all of you for any advice or helpful direction to get the Lee County Youth Center up and running in a way that would make Donna proud. I would love to see you come out and support the LCYC on the 10th and I look forward to working with you in the future.

Were making tracks!

History of the LCYC

Eleven years ago several ministers and community leaders, saw a need in Giddings.  Elementary school students were being released at 3:00 pm.  Many of these students had parents who worked and had no place to go after school where they could be supervised.  There was no community center in Giddings.

                Giddings Independent School District had built a new elementary school six years earlier, gutting and abandoning the old elementary school.  I approached the school board and worked on an agreement.  The district would lease the building for one dollar a year if we could form a 501(c)(3) organization and raise funds to refurbish the building.  And we went to work.

                The Lee County Youth Center was formed as a charitable organization.  Grants were obtained to refurbish the leaking roof, restore the gutted kitchen, fix leaky plumbing and replace all old air conditioners including the large $35,000 unit to cool the main cafeteria.  Volunteers replaced the ceiling and floor tiles damaged by the water, painted walls, and landscaped the grounds.

                We set up a curriculum to address the community needs using the Youth Center primarily as an educational experience.

                Donna Orsag, a retired teacher, principal, and English as a second language instructor, set up the curriculum.

                As the children arrived, we fed these children a meal.  As Donna noted, hungry children cannot learn.  We got a federal grant to fund the feeding program.  After the kids were fed, they met with mentors and volunteers to do this homework.

                The mentors were 12 high school students – six Junior and six Seniors – who we paid to work with the kids, providing needed jobs for these high school students.  The kids brought their homework assignments from their teachers and they had to complete and master their homework assignment before the mentor would sign off.  For students who had problems with English, Donna set up special study programs so that the students would become proficient in English. When homework assignments were completed were the children were allowed to go to the gym or one of the classrooms for games.  Then the parents or guardians would pick these young students by six.

                The program worked.  Students that were once failing now began making A’s and B’s because they understood their lessons.  Many students struggling with English no longer needed help after a year or two as their English grew superb.  Above all scores on State mandated testing soared.