Slides Show Origins of Teen Break In Lake Havasu City

By Becky Maxedon

Another treasure trove of slides discovered in the Lake Havasu City Parks and Recreation department depict the early days of Teen Break.

Since Teen Break was this week, RiverScene Magazine delved into the history of the program to accompany the digitized slides and to pave to way to those of today.

Some 30 years ago – hard to believe it but it’s true – MTV came to Lake Havasu City for Spring Break.

MTV Spring Break 1995 Lake Havasu City, AZ Jillian Danielson/RiverScene Magazine

Photo of Jillian Danielson’s MTV ticket at Nautical Inn Resort in 1995. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene Magazine

While it was great for college students who had been frequenting Lake Havasu City for years for their Springs Break activities, many concerned parents and city officials worried that local teens were getting too involved with the beach revelry enjoyed by the older spring breakers.

“MTV was able to make the party scene look so attractive to our young people, but it was not going well for them,” said Donna Best-Catrlton. Best-Carlton was one of the organizers of the program and has since retired from the Lake Havasu City Parks and Recreation department.

“Parks and Recreation was asked to create something that would be fun for our local teens and keep them away from the Nautical Inn and MTV during their spring break vacation,” she said.

Best-Carlton said MTV producers and managers worked with the organizers and loaned them equipment the first year and helped design the program.

“Many businesses in town stepped up to help. The main sponsors were Bashas Market, Kalil Bottling, Gaterade and Youth Workers Roundtable. This was a group that represented all our local Christian youth pastors. This group of local youth pastors handled all the games and music and events on stage as well as providing a couple hundred volunteers from their local churches,” she said.

Teen Break Lake Havasu City RiverScene Magazine 1990s

1990s Teen Break photo courtesy Lake Havasu Parks and Recreation

“The event was crazy, clean, wild fun. We were competing against MTV to keep our teenagers with us, and we had to go all out, but keep it legal and clean. It was a great way to show our youth how much we appreciated them, and that they could have a great time that they could tell their parents all about, no regrets.”

In the beginning, the event was for ninth grade through 12th grade only but as the event grew in popularity, the community asked if the junior high students could attend and they were added and continue through today.

The highest number registered in a single year was just under 1,600, according to Best-Carlton.

Teen Break had an impact on local youth crime as well.

1990s Teen Break photo courtesy Lake Havasu Parks and Recreation

“We had invited the Parker students, Kingman students and our neighbors across the lake at Havasu Landing. About six years in, we were told by the PD that the local juvenile crime rate had dropped by about 80 percent. We had local probation officers looking for their “teen clients” – wondering what trouble they might be up to, but were thrilled when they found them at Teen Break, staying out of trouble and having a great time,” Best-Carlton said.

“When our teens were doing things that were off-limits like jumping ramps into the water at Site Six or under the bridge on their BMX bikes, the police department let us set up a 60-foot dock with a 6-foot high ramp at the end so they could jump into the lake at Teen Break with 1,000 of their friends watching.”

The parks department along with Campbell Redi Mix and many others helped build a dirt BMX track at Teen Break. Many groups chipped in and helped build half pipes and wooden ramps on a slab of concrete to have a skate park and rollerblade park and BMX park.

London Bridge resort helped with vendors for some of the most exciting rides the teens had ever seen let alone got to do.

“Our city attorney at the time would meet with us and go over how we could get everything done safely. As things grew, we had four or five extreme carnival rides, the world‘s largest water slide, the Slingshot, live camel rides, live elephant rides, and one year, Pat Tinnell did a show where he jumped the elephant on his bmx bike with the kids and many parents watching.

1990s Teen Break photo courtesy Lake Havasu Parks and Recreation

“Every teen got a T-shirt representing the event, and I still see kids wearing those shirts that used to belong to their parents.

“As the administration changed, i.e. new city attorneys, new finance directors and new city managers, things began to change. We weren’t allowed to have carnival rides or inflatables anymore due to the liability concerns,” she said.

The changes curtailed many of the activities Teen Break was able to provide.

“They no longer would allow any waterslides. No more live animals – anything that management felt was not safe, was taken away.”

1990s Teen Break photo courtesy Lake Havasu Parks and Recreation

As a result, program numbers began to drop. Best-Carlton said as numbers dropped, around 2020, some city council members had suggested the program should be eliminated. However, as the biggest teen program offered by the Parks and Recreation department, it has remained a staple for area youth.

“I retired as the recreation supervisor in July 2020. LHC has offered Teen Break for 20-plus years and every city department, more than 250 local businesses, many local churches and clubs, hundreds of volunteer workers and local citizens who sponsored youth to attend, made Teen Break a huge success for our young people.

Donna Best-Carlton and RSM publisher Jillian Danielson have a little fun during a Parks and Recreation Teen Break photoshoot in 2020 before Carlton’s retirement. photo RSM staff

“And this is what I learned, if you love your teens as they grow up and make sacrifices for them, they see that, and they will love their community back as adults. It’s simple.”

Many of the teens who participated in those first years are now in their late 40s with families of their own.

Here are photos that were recently found on slides from the 1990s in Parks and Recreation storage and digitized. Do you recognize anyone in these photos? Let us know on our social media and tag them!

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