Second chance for Indiantown project

INDIANTOWN, Fla. - Right now, it's just a field. But Renee Booth sees so much more. "I see a place where teens can be engaged. I see opportunity for these kids."

Booth is with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Martin County.

Her organization plans to build a new community center and gymnasium in what will become Carter Park in Indiantown. "From our point of view, the kids are all the same and the need is just the same."

Mike Readling with Habitat for Humanity of Martin County says 40 homes will be built surrounding the Boys and Girls Club. "I've been with Habitat for two years and on my first day, they drove me out to Indiantown and showed me a wooded lot and said we own that and we're going to try and do something with that some day."

That Habitat land became part of a land swap that Martin County Commissioners approved last week

"Which in effect gave the property for this future community which will be affordable and sustainable and really a catalyst for Indiantown as a whole," Gabriella Ferraro a Martin County spokeswoman.

Most of the 1.9 million dollar project was funded through grants and the county's redevelopment agency.

Booth says in the past three years, the Boys and Girls Club has raised most of the money needed for its construction."With full size gym, community meeting space and classrooms, we'll be able to do so much more and it'll be something the kids can take pride in and really make their own."

"Groundbreaking for Carter Park is expected to take place later this month.