A few of us from Linkenheimer spent a couple hours at Chop’s Teen Club in Santa Rosa last week. We came to paint, clean and help support a local non-profit that is shaping future generations in Sonoma County.

The Chairs

The chairs we refreshed weren’t new. They came from Lena’s, the restaurant that operated in that building for roughly 30 years, before it became Chops. Before Lena’s, the site was the Battaglia Hotel, back in the 1890s.

So these chairs have a history. They held people on anniversary dinners, first dates, ordinary Friday nights. Decades of them.

Now they hold teenagers. Kids learning to cook in the teaching kitchen, record a track in the music studio, play basketball in the gym, or just sit somewhere safe and figure out who they’re becoming.

Same chairs. Whole new reason to exist. We spent the afternoon getting them ready for another year with the teens.

The Place

Chop’s Teen Club exists because of one man. Charles “Chop” DeMeo was a local attorney who grew up here without much. He watched kids from Ridgeway High sit on curbs after school with nowhere to go, and it stuck with him. When he passed in 1995, he left the bulk of his estate, about $16 million, to build a safe place for them. Debt-free, on purpose, so it would last.

Today that’s a 21,000-square-foot facility in Historic Railroad Square: a tech lounge, art studio, teaching kitchen, gym, rock-climbing wall, and a recording studio. Free to every 7th through 12th grader in Sonoma County.

Two of our own, Jake Martini and Der Lor, serve on Chop’s board. So this place isn’t a stranger to us. It’s part of who we are.

Why We Showed Up

We don’t do this for the photos, though we took a few. We do it because it’s who we are, and because the people here make it easy.

Case in point: Josh Warren spent his birthday with us at Chop’s. Helping paint and clean for kids he’ll likely never meet. We celebrated him with dinner afterward, but the volunteering came first, and with a selfless attitude.

That’s the part we’re proudest of. Not the hours logged, but a team who comes together to help others. Just like in El Salvador one month prior.

Thank you to Chop’s Teen Club for letting us be a small part of the story. We’ll be back.