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Circle & Square

home : news September 02, 2010
6/4/2008 9:44:00 AM
Boiler Room bubbling with new ideas
Gigi Callaizakis, who came to Port Townsend in search of a “human-scale” town, has become part of the eclectic fabric of the Boiler Room. Photo by Blythe Lawrence
Gigi Callaizakis, who came to Port Townsend in search of a “human-scale” town, has become part of the eclectic fabric of the Boiler Room. Photo by Blythe Lawrence
Gigi Callaizakis shares a laugh with Boiler Room Manager Jason Green and coffeehouse intern Girl Sam. Photo by Blythe Lawrence
Gigi Callaizakis shares a laugh with Boiler Room Manager Jason Green and coffeehouse intern Girl Sam. Photo by Blythe Lawrence
June events from The Boiler Room

Friday, June 13
Benefit Concert at Legion Hall
Time: 11 a.m.-midnight
Lightshow by Fractalumia Theater
Band lineup: The Nextdoor Neighbours, The Hollowpoints, Little George & The Steamrollers with Big Moe Minor, Rhythm Planet, Observer Effect, bEe, Jake Kelly, Solvents, Eclectric, Caveman Cyborg, Style E, and others TBA.

Saturday, June 14
Benefit Concert at Legion Hall
Time: 11 a.m.-midnight
Lightshow by Fractalumia Theater
Band lineup: Jerry Miller of the Legendary Moby Grape, Leon Hendrix, Steve Prescott and the Run-Throughs, Blu Meadows, Big Whoop, Tempo No Tempo, Zeke Wakefield, and others TBA.

Saturday, June 21
Benefit auction at the USO Hall, Fort Worden State Park Auctioneers: Joey Pipia and Kees Kolff, featuring a special performance by Nanda. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Blythe Lawrence, Leader staff writer


Gigi Callaizakis takes the idea of investing in youth seriously - and literally.

The president of The Boiler Room Board of Directors is still getting used to her new position, which she took over Jan. 1 from Boiler Room stalwart Bruce Marston. But she's already contributed a lot - more than $400,000 - in the nonprofit coffeehouse's success.

In May, Callaizakis purchased the $425,000 mortgage debt from the Pray family, who owned the former Day Star Cafe building at 711 Water St., at 5 percent interest.

"We were just discussing the process of refinancing, and I had some money I wanted to invest, and I just thought, why not invest in The Boiler Room?" she said. "We all work to pay it down."

The Boiler Room organization, which boasts chanteuse Kimya Dawson of "Juno" soundtrack fame as a former board member and regular, bought the defunct cafe for $475,000 in August 2005. Dozens of volunteers, including community electricians, plumbers and artists, donated time and energy to renovate the space, which opened the day before Christmas that year. The coffeehouse was under contract to come up with a balloon payment of $425,000 by July 2010. For the past three years, the organization has also had to come up with $2,500 in interest per month.

Callaizakis' refinancing lowered the interest on the building from 7 percent to 5 percent, and extended the balloon deadline until 2016.

The coffeehouse began as a "youth sanctuary" uptown in 1993 and had been open in its new location less than six months when Callaizakis moved to town from Denver with partner Steve Moore. Callaizakis, who relocated in search of what she calls a "human-scale" place, instantly loved being surrounded by mountains and water.

"I'd been aware of The Boiler Room since before I moved here," said Callaizakis, who now has her own consulting business. "I kind of had my radar up for something like it." Within a year, she had become a board member.

"I think what it teaches me on a daily basis is to question my assumptions," Callaizakis said. "I think that's because it continues to grow, kind of like the plant you see growing in the crack of a building. Life force is a very important thing, and I think this place has a very strong life force."

Boiler Room Manager Jason Green likened Callaizakis' involvement with The Boiler Room to that of a good school superintendent.

"She's always really busy, but she spends a lot of time here," he said.

That Callaizakis understands Boiler Room clientele is an added bonus, intern Girl Sam said.

"She knows what The Boiler Room means, and she gets that," Sam said. "And [she's] really supportive of the youths."

In Denver, Callaizakis had worked for Urban Peak, a nonprofit that provides services for homeless and runaway youths between the ages of 14 and 24. Working with youths is always stimulating because they tend to think outside the box, she said.

"There's an innocence underneath everything," she added. "Something in their soul has been taught not to conform as we adults do, and sometimes it's a problem but sometimes it's wonderful."

In her new role, Callaizakis has thrown herself into stimulating relations between The Boiler Room and local businesses. As a Boiler Room representative, she paid house calls to business neighbors, asking them what they wanted to see from the coffeehouse, Green said.

"I think in about six months the town's going to have a different perspective on us," Green noted.

For her part, Callaizakis envisions The Boiler Room owning the building, expanding its internships and having more inter-generational activities that allow youths and older people to connect.

Particularly that last one.

Speaking as a mother with two grown daughters, she said: "I find it particularly sad when people our own age are afraid of their kids.

"And yet, there are people who get frustrated. And young people, they're supposed to shake our trees," she added. "But overall, the community's incredibly supporting."



Wilder Nissan

Fundraising plans
The Boiler Room's greatest concern has been and continues to be funding. Although the city provides $5,000 per year, some don't realize what a drop in the bucket that is, given the facility's approximately $80,000-per-annum operating cost, Green said.

A month ago, a rumor went around to staff members that the organization was broke and would have to come up with $5,000 in a very short time to keep going. The message turned out to be a miscommunication, but not before several Boiler Room regulars - youths and adults - had hosted a car wash that brought in $600.

Donations to The Boiler Room, including $100,000 given by a Seattle foundation, have been tucked into a certificate of deposit that will be worth around $105,000 when it matures this summer, and Boiler Room clientele are organizing summer fundraisers that they hope will lessen monthly interest and debt. An anonymous donor has offered a $25,000 matching grant that will go toward The Boiler Room's Capital Campaign Fund if the organization can raise the same amount by the end of June.

If The Boiler Room, which has whittled its original debt down to $425,000, manages to raise $25,000 by the end of June, combined with the $25,000 matching grant and $100,000 CD, it will owe less than $275,000 on the building.

"We're really hoping on paying it off pretty soon," Green said.

Since Callaizakis is charging only 5 percent interest, The Boiler Room payments on the building are likely to drop by about $1,000 per month come June, he added.

Even so, the coffeehouse's financial concerns are not likely to just disappear - as a nonprofit, it will likely have to rely on some measure of public funding and donations.

Callaizakis would also like to see some strategic planning happen, but she said that she doesn't want to overshadow the creative force that has propelled The Boiler Room odyssey.

"I don't want to put so much structure there that it loses the youthful fluidity," she said. "I would like to see us developing a road map, but I don't think it would ever be Step A, step B. It would be more fluid than that."

Despite organizations that provide services like Urban Peak's, there are no Boiler Room-type places in Denver, Callaizakis said. That's another goal.

"I would love for us to help other cities - be a sort of model for other cities who want to start Boiler Rooms," she said.







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