Teens Encouraged to Volunteer Outdoors This Summer

(Eugene) Register-Guard – June 15, 2008
By Sherri Buri McDonald

The summer job outlook for teens is the bleakest it’s been in decades, but that doesn’t mean that youngsters who want to gain work experience won’t be able to get it.

They just might have to be a little more creative, or consider working as an unpaid volunteer.

That experience is beneficial in itself, people who work with youngsters say. Plus it can fulfill requirements for community service at area high schools and college, and help young people land paying jobs in the future.

Some of the nonprofit organizations in the listings below even have work opportunities for “tweens” as young as 11 years old.

Work in the Woods

Northwest Youth Corps, a 25-year-old nonprofit group based in Eugene, has sent thousands of youngsters to work in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Modeled after the historic Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, Northwest Youth Corps offers kids, 11 to 19, an opportunity to work outdoors, gain leadership skills, and learn about the environment. A summer day camp is tailored to younger kids, 11 to 15. Tuition is $265 for a two-week camp, or $395 for a three-week camp. Kids 11 to 13 earn a one-time $50 stipend and 14- and 15-year-olds earn a $75 stipend.

Older teens, age 14 to 19, can spend up to five weeks camping and working in the back country of Washington, Oregon, Northern California or Idaho. Tuition is $225, and they can earn a nontaxable stipend of up to $1,400. High-schoolers also may qualify for school credit.

Northwest Youth Corps employs about 1,000 kids a year. The program has grown steadily over time, said executive director Art Pope, who launched the program in Eugene in 1982 because “it was where I lived and where most of our contacts and connections were.”

More and more parents are discovering Northwest Youth Corps as a means of dealing with a host of issues that are gaining attention, he said.

They include “nature deficit disorder,” the need to reconnect kids with nature and raise their awareness about the environment; the need for kids to be more physically active; and the desire for kids to have more social interaction, given the trend of smaller families and greater use of electronics, which can leave kids socially disconnected, Pope said.

Work crews that start soon already have been hired, but “we still have a fair number of openings for the latter part of the summer,” he said.

Head to the Kitchen or Out to the Garden

FOOD For Lane County, a nonprofit based in Eugene whose mission is to eliminate hunger in the area, has a place for basically any teen who wants one, although most are not paid positions.

“We need as many volunteers as we can get,” said volunteer coordinator Sheyla Norte.

“I need 70 people a day in the kitchen, and the gardens can have 50 people working at a time,” she said.

The group runs three area gardens: one on Coburg Road, one in west Eugene and one in Springfield’s Gateway area. Last year 115,000 pounds of organic produce were harvested at the gardens, Norte said.

Each garden operates different hours. But kids, age 12 and older, who are interested in gardening, can call FOOD for Lane County to find out the hours of the garden nearest them, and just show up at a time when a supervisor is at the garden, Norte said.

Children as young as 4 or 5 are welcome to garden with a parent, she added.

Kids who want to work in the kitchen must provide contact information and schedule their hours ahead. Regular hours and minimum time commitment are not required.

“We’re very unique in that we have such flexibility where they can work it in with their vacation,” or other activities, Norte said.

It may come as a surprise to some that FOOD for Lane County is largely teen- powered.

“Teenagers really make up the core of our volunteer force,” Norte said.

Kids as young as 11, if accompanied by someone 14 or older, can work in the group’s kitchen, repackaging “rescued” food from local hotels, restaurants and cafeterias.

The food, which stays refrigerated during transport and handling, was prepared but never served. So it’s repackaged to serve hungry people throughout the county. During the summer, for example, nearly 3,000 children receive a free meal a day, Monday through Friday.

That’s an extra incentive for the young volunteers, Norte said.

“It’s kids feeding kids,” she said. “They really get into it.”

The volunteer positions are unpaid. FOOD for Lane County is seeking about 20 paid supervisors to deliver meals to kids in Eugene and Springfield for a couple of hours each week day. Applicants must be at least 18 years old and have a dependable car and a food handler’s card. Pay is $7.95 an hour, plus mileage reimbursement.

Red Cross First Responders

The main volunteer opportunity for high-schoolers at the Oregon Pacific Chapter Red Cross is with F.A.S.T., the First Aid Service Team. This group of teens, 14 and older, are trained in CPR and first aid.

They provide first-aid services, under the supervision of adult mentors, at local community events.

The group routinely provides services at the University of Oregon home football games, and they’ll be ready to respond to first-aid emergencies at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials held at Hayward Field later this month. The positions are unpaid.

Help Build a House

Teenagers 16 and older, who want to learn construction skills, are welcome to volunteer for Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity. The nonprofit organization builds houses for low-income families.

No experience is necessary and, except for a mandatory one-hour orientation, no minimum time commitment is required, Executive Director Don Griffin said. The group accepts applications throughout the year. This summer volunteers will be working on two houses in Meyer Estates, a 10-house subdivision in Springfield, near 49th Street and North A Street. Each house the group builds takes between 2,500 to 5,000 hours of volunteer labor, Griffin said.

“We try to accommodate a wide range of folks because we know that people have varying levels of interest and expertise and time available,” he said, “and we need all the help we can get.”

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