PCYC manager and life member Terry Eaton retires after nearly three decades of contributing to Albany youth

After nearly three decades of helping Albany youth, Albany Police & Community Youth Centre manager and former police officer Terry Eaton is hanging up his hat for a well-deserved retirement. A PCYC life member, Mr Eaton has been involved in the club since 1995. Mr Eaton said he took an opportunity to “move down the highway” from Harvey to Albany in 1995 when he was employed as a police officer. “I was asked by the local Superintendent at the time, I was working in Harvey and I had to move out of the South West district and he asked me to come down and give it a go,” he said. Six months into working with the PCYC, Mr Eaton said it grew “like a mushroom” and by 2000 an expansion or upgrade was needed. “We were getting good traction within the community, and were getting some good work with the Department of Sport and Recreation and the Education Department, and before we knew it we had a really good working youth committee,” he said. “In about 2000 the Education Department said they were going to move the primary school up to where the high school is, so we grabbed that bit of land on Sanford Road and away we went. “That was opened in 2005 and we went from 300 or 400 people walking through the door each week to about 1000 plus.” A major community leader, Mr Eaton says he’s incredibly proud of the work the PCYC has done for Albany since its inception and the events and programs the club has run including the youth discos, childcare, and youth committee. “Seeing those young people developing into the brilliant community members they are is great, and some of the kids we had in the powerful programs and what they’ve made of themselves is just unbelievable,” Mr Eaton said. “The volunteers, the coaches, the local community, the businesses, the way they’ve all come together and worked, there’s no way we could have achieved that. A well-deserved retirement, Mr Eaton said he will spend some time focusing on himself and will enjoy his new past hobby of swimming at the Albany Leisure and Aquatic Centre in the mornings. About 60 people gathered at the Albany Police & Community Youth Centre on Sunday afternoon to celebrate Mr Eaton’s retirement.