Remember your first job? The first time you worked and earned a paycheck?<\/p>\n
For many young people in Juneau, that happened this summer, perhaps working in the food industry, on a whale-watching boat, in a retail shop or on a fishing vessel.<\/p>\n
For a small group, it meant improving Juneau\u2019s trails \u2014 shoveling rocks, diverting drainage, clearing brush, sweating. On Thursday, the six-member Youth Employment in Parks crew finished building a new bridge on the Mount Jumbo Trail on Douglas Island.<\/p>\n
Joshua Berg, 18, said hauling the materials was the hardest part of the project, but it also taught the group teamwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cHauling up these huge beams for the bridge, we had to work together. Multiple crewmembers had to pick them up to hike up this very bumpy and rocky trail,\u201d he said during an interview at the bridge site. \u201cSo we had to call out when we were slipping or about to lose grip or getting tired.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to make up for that and help them. Set it down, take a breather, and then lift it back up and get it up there,\u201d Christopher Worrell, 18, added.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s part of the goal of Youth Employment in Parks \u2014 teaching valuable job skills. The new Juneau program provides youth with their first job, while also developing things like work ethic, attendance and being on time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want them to learn these things for their upcoming jobs and success,\u201d said C. Allen Truitt, the crew\u2019s leader and program coordinator. \u201cKeep working, have a good attitude, show up \u2014 all those things that make you successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Truitt works for Juneau\u2019s Parks & Recreation Department at the Zach Gordon Youth Center. Youth Employment in Parks is a partnership between Zach Gordon and Southeast Alaska Independent Living, which received a grant from the state. Truitt said SAIL teaches the crew job skills, like resume building and interview techniques. Parks & Rec helps the crew identify what projects to work on and how to execute them.<\/p>\n
The job also has some pretty cool perks. Besides the fun of working hard, the program also allows time for good old-fashioned fun. For instance, after learning how to improve a resume, the crew may get to go kayaking or watch a movie.<\/p>\n
But most of the nine-week program is filled with fairly hard labor. Aside from the Jumbo trail bridge, the crew did work on Sandy Beach, Flume Trail, Cope Park and the Christopher Trail connecting Cope and Flume. And they still have one more week left to go.<\/p>\n
For 15-year-old Brandon Jack, the most difficult project was on the Flume Trail.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that one was hard. There was a ton of rock just covering the trail so we got all the rock off and it took us a while,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Also, in the areas where water covered the trail, the crew diverted it to flow under.<\/p>\n
Each crewmember gets paid $10 an hour. While a few of them have had prior work or volunteer experience, for all of them this is their first paycheck.<\/p>\n
Zak Love, 18, will soon start his senior year at Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School. He said he\u2019s saving the money for college.<\/p>\n
Berg plans to \u201ckeep it in my bank account and wait to see if I want something and then buy it.\u201d He just graduated from Juneau-Douglas High School and hopes to get into the military some day.<\/p>\n
Worrell, who just graduated from Yaakoosge Daakahidi, said he\u2019ll use the money toward getting his own apartment. After this job, he plans to look for another.<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s armed with more skills and achievements, like, \u201cwe\u2019ve built a bridge; we can all say that now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI like looking at what we did and feeling proud that we\u2019ve built this and it\u2019s going to last a while, and I\u2019ll come back some other time and see that it\u2019s still here,\u201d Worrell said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n
Read more news:<\/strong><\/p>\n New headquarters in the works for Marine Exchange<\/a><\/p>\n How the former head of ACORN became president of a Juneau mental health org<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Meet two new Juneau businesses<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Remember your first job? The first time you worked and earned a paycheck? For many young people in Juneau, that happened this summer, perhaps working in the food industry, on a whale-watching boat, in a retail shop<\/a> or on a fishing vessel. For a small group, it meant improving Juneau\u2019s trails \u2014 shoveling rocks, diverting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":29185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-29184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29184"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=29184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}