Jesse Meyer wedged a crowbar between a stringer and a deck board and pried up a thick red-pine plank from The Fox Den Loop boardwalk.
The foster teen was helping to deconstruct the boardwalk at the Grand Traverse Natural Education Reserve to make way for a new, wider boardwalk constructed from local black locust.
The project is one of several Meyer and five other foster teens have worked on this summer with the SEEDS Youth Conservation Corps. The teens work as a team on labor-intensive conservation and stewardship projects under the supervision of a SEEDS staffer.
Besides a salary, they receive "green collar" job and life skills that will help them transition out of the foster care system and into independence in the "real world."
"They get out and work side by side with young men and they're treated like adults in every way," said Bill Watson, youth development director for SEEDS, a nonprofit environmental organization that takes on community projects. "The expectation is that they work hard, they attend, they participate, they show up on time, they look professional when they get there. The rewards are that they're treated with a lot of respect."
So far the teens have performed everything from trail and garden maintenance to removing invasive species, pulling up posts and replacing signage. Their work has taken them to Power Island, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and church and Leelanau Conservancy properties.
"It's definitely challenging," said Meyer, 18, of the service learning program modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s New Deal. "I like being out in the wild. I'm kind of an outdoors person."
The teens also got to kayak and take a workshop with raptor rehabilitator Rebecca Lessard as part of the SEEDS Youth Conservation Corps' educational and academic component.
The foster team is the first Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan has fielded and is a collaboration between the agency's Elements program, SEEDS and Rotary Charities, which pays the teens minimum wage. Elements provides mentoring and support, including intensive individual and group skills-building, to teens "aging out" of foster care.
"We've been talking about a collaboration for a number of years," said Watson, a former Child and Family Services program coordinator for kids at risk in the juvenile justice program. "I wanted to get kids in the foster care system involved so they would get job skills, life skills. The Elements program was a perfect fit for what we're doing."
The summer job is the first consistent paying job for most of the teens, said Julie Quinn, independent life specialist with Child and Family Services. But a salary isn't the only reward. The teens also are forging close friendships and gaining the kind of confidence that comes with a job well done.
"I see the boys after work and it's been a huge turnaround for all of them," Quinn said. "They enjoy the physical work. They're high energy kids so to have a focus, to have a purpose, is a big thing." Even bigger, she said, is "finding they're good at something, they're needed, they're doing something that matters. I've seen it in their faces, in their disposition, in their confidence."
Meyer not only found a job, but a niche. The 2011 Traverse City West Senior High graduate has been hired on permanently by SEEDS -- and given a raise -- as a full-time conservation crew member.
"It gives me a job," said Meyer, who soon will be moving out of his foster home, finding his own place and managing his own life and budget. "I'm not quite ready for college yet, so I'm taking this and figuring (the future) out."
Watson hopes to field another foster team next year and eventually to build a residential program for the teens.
"They've been an amazing group of men," he said. "They've done a fabulous job for us. In a lot of ways they were one of the more successful teams we ran this summer."
Quinn said the service learning program is among the most exciting developments for Child and Family Services, which begins its 75th year this fall.
"It's one of my favorite things that has happened," she said. "It's going to be a lifesaver for some of these boys."
Los Angeles Bar Bans Bachelorettes
Hamster Plays Dead
Beyonce Shows Off 60 Pound Weight Loss at Concert
Drunk Women Breaking Into Houses: A New Trend?
LeAnn Rimes Rocks Short Shorts
Raw Video: Cop Shoots Man Eating Another's Face
Gordon Ramsay Carried Off Field
Man Dies Getting Lap Dance
Kim Kardashian Claims Items Stolen from Her Luggage
Bear cools off in Calif. family's pool
Ep. 3: Chopped Desserts
Air Force dad surprises family at baseball game
Justin Bieber Wanted for Questioning for L.A. Scuffle
J.Lo and Marc's Friendly Reunion
Man Falls Off Crane, Dies After Police Standoff
Jet makes emergency landing after debris falls off
Raw Video: Deadly Explosion at Minn. Paper Mill
Cynthia Nixon Ties the Knot
Woman, 80, Falls Out of Skydive Harness Mid-Jump
Keira Reveals Engagement Ring
