When the Hay River Youth Centre was forced to close its doors for the month of March, there was never any worry about whether it would re-open, said Scott Clouthier, the centre's executive director.

Now that's it has re-opened for business, Clouthier's goal is to have it open every day with no more shutdowns.

The youth centre is up and running once again as of yesterday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. and Clouthier said there was plenty of anticipation around the community.

"We had a lot of youth reach out and ask us when we'd be opening again," he said. "We didn't want to announce it too soon because we still had to get in touch with staff and set up their availability, but we were planning on opening as we hoped."

The centre announced in February that it would have to close for the month of March due to a funding shortfall and that it would be taking the time to raise the amount of money needed to get things back on track.

Clouthier said the work behind the scenes involved looking at more opportunities to obtain grant funding and find some new funding avenues.

"We just didn't have enough to stay open for 12 months," he said. "There was never any sort of panic and we just worked to find more avenues to apply for more funding and make new partnerships."

The community also stepped up big time with donations from several businesses and organizations including Rowes, Buffalo Air, Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) North and Royal Canadian Legion Branch 250, which donated more than $1,000 from a meat raffle it held in early March. The Town of Hay River added $2,500 from its Healthy Communities Award it received from the NWT Association of Communities.

The Ptarmigan Inn also stepped in with a promotion where $3 from every smash burger sold on March 23 would be given to the youth centre. The hotel matched the amount raised on that day.

"The hotel came to us with that idea and they've indicated that they'd like to do more events with us," said Clouthier. "It's great to be able to form a partnership with the new management at the hotel."

In fact, the support from everyone in the community has been heartwarming, he added.

"The centre has only been open for two years and our organization isn't much older than that," he said. "It's been amazing to feel and receive the amount of support we've had and it tells us that we're providing a vital service for the community. They don't want to see us go away."