The front door to the Bethune Community Center swings on its hinges like windshield wipers. After a long afternoon of between 70 to 90 children coming and going each weekday during the summer, the staff at the center are glad that even windshield wipers get turned off eventually.

Tiny Lewis has worked at the Bethune Center for 11 years. As the director she has her hands full. She gets help from assistant director Diane Houston, who has been at the center for nine years, and a staff of rotating community service workers, but with nearly a hundred kids in constant motion, there is never a moments rest.

“Children prefer to come here than to go to a babysitter, and they’ve got someone to play with all day.” said Lewis.

The building that houses the center was, prior to desegregation, the all-black Bethune School. Blacks were finally integrated into Piedmont schools in the early 1970’s and soon after the building began its’ transformation.

One young man came bustling in the door, running past Lewis who quickly got his attention.

“Excuse me,” she said, slowing him to a complete stop.

“Good morning.”

The boy responded with a “good morning” and walked calmly towards the game room.

“He just turned seven yesterday,” said Lewis.

Lewis has watched a whole generation of children grow up inside the rooms of the Bethune Center. Many of them smile at her from photographs on a bulletin board near her desk.

The rooms are divided by age. One through nine year olds in one room and ten and up in another. Lewis said the young ones are easy, but gave some sage advice on the older crowd.

“You have to keep your eye on them,” said Lewis. “And the girls are worse than the boys.”

The older concrete block structure was, prior to desegregation, the all-black Bethune School. The building is getting a bit old. The walls could use some paint, and it is impossible to keep out the flies with the front door swinging open every few seconds, but the building has been a center of the black community in Piedmont for decades. It has pool tables and ping-pong tables and a couple of televisions and plenty of toys for the younger ones.

Even years later, said Lewis, when the kids have long since grown up and moved away, often the first place they visit upon returning to Piedmont is their Bethune Center to pay a visit to Lewis and Houston.

The work takes patience, and a willingness to sometimes look beyond the surface.

“I’ve found out after 11 years here that most of it is from home,” said Lewis. “They’re angry with their parents or sister or brother and they bring it here. I told my daughter that I should have gone to school to be a physiatrist because you’ve got to sit down and figure out what’s going on with the child at home.”

Lewis described one young woman with a difficult demeanor who began visiting the center years ago. Lewis asked the girl to step into her office for a talk, and soon enough the girl opened up to her. She was having troubles at home. The girl’s parents were arguing a lot, and eventually her anger and resentment became too much for her to control. But that talk started a change in the girl that has lasted to this day.

“You wouldn’t believe the change in that child’s attitude. And now she’s in college,” said Lewis. “Just someone to speak to.”

It is not all fuzzy cuddles and rainbows at the center. Lewis holds her court like a seasoned drill instructor. Like a person responsible for 90 kids.

“My motto is, I don’t care what you do at home with your mom or your grandmom or your auntie, this is Tiny’s house,” Said Lewis. “And they all have adjusted to it.”

Thirteen year-old Cameron Pickens has been coming to the center since he turned two. A photograph of Pickens is among the portraits smiling at Lewis in her office.

“She gets on to me more in the summer than when we’re in school,” said Pickens. “But she’s a good person, and she’s someone to talk to”.

Shimarriye Thompson said she has been coming to the center “Since I was born. My favorite place is to come here and mess with Mrs. Diane,” said Thompson. To which Young Pickens replied, “Yeah, I come here to mess with Lewis, too.”

But professionals never flinch.

“I don’t let too much bother me,” said Lewis. “You’ve got to say something really harsh to make me mad,” said Lewis.

The center’s building is rented out just about every weekend for class reunions and family reunions, and for seniors who need a facility that does not require them to walk upstairs. All of Bethune is on one level, which makes it much easier for older persons to navigate.

Each October the center hosts Black History Month celebration. The word is the singing at the event is amazing, the food outstanding and the company even better.

Eleven year old Jakieya Mitchell attends the October celebration too, but for an eleven year-old the center means one thing. “I come to see some of my friends down here and play with them,” said Mitchell. And in that respect, the center may always be important to the kids of Piedmont. Without it, Lewis said she is not sure what the community would do.

“They all don’t live in this community right here, they’re from all over the area,“ said Lewis. “But they know the center is here. I call it a safe haven. They know they’re here. They know they’re safe.”