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Students spend part of summer break working in Rider Park

By Pat Crossley 6 min read

It was a hot day -- the kind that has people hiding out at home with their air conditioners and fans.

And yet, a group of high school students chose instead to work various jobs around Rider Park. Some were repairing swales along the road leading to the picnic area, others were sanding and painting the park's picnic tables.

In the midst of their labors they were learning important job skills - showing up to work, working as a team until the tasks are completed, communicating with team members and finally taking pride in a job well done.

This is the second year for the program which is offered through the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) and Living Unlimited, one of their service providers.

Living Unlimited and OVR have "worked together to create a program for adolescents who need job skills, work experience. To kind of give them a foot in the door so that they have those things when they go to apply for other jobs either before or after graduation from high school," said Billie Jean Tyler, from Living Unlimited.

Tyler and Lynnette Murray, another job coach with Living ,were there at the park with the students to supervise and guide them with any kind of support they need on the job. In total there were two groups of workers -- one at Rider Park and one at a park in Trout Run. Each group works for four weeks at their site.

Nine students from the Montoursville and South Williamsport Area school districts are at Rider Park while Williamsport Area School District students are working at the Trout Run site.

Transportation is provided so that is not a barrier for participation and students are paid for the work they do Tyler noted.

"They're offered the opportunity through OVR as part of the school transition program," Tyler explained.

"There are counselors that go to the schools that work for OVR. The whole idea is to get these students out and get them jobs so they can be more successful when they do it independently. OVR offered this program to those clients that they see at the school," she said.

In addition to the work that they do to help maintain the park, the students are also being offered other educational opportunities as part of their job.

"The kids are learning so much. Their first three days they learned about invasive plants and walked through the meadows. We focused on four specific species and then we chopped them down and then we put some herbicides on them so they wouldn't grow back. Obviously we did not get to all 800 acres here but the kids got to learn about it," Murray said.

Then the students did some trail repair, raking stone and lying drainage and then there was a storm that hit the area toppling trees and downing limbs at the park.

"It wasn't really on our plan...so we divided and conquered and did all the trails here to remove branches and trees," Murray said.

They're also learning basic skills like how to paint and how to use a sander to prepare wood for painting.

"There were kids that didn't know how to work the palm sander -- now they're learning how to do that safely. Somebody yesterday was painting this way instead of going with the grain. Leaning just why things are done the way they are," Murray said.

"Some of these kids haven't had those experiences. Some have, but not all of them. And they're appreciating that. They wer given a toolkit when they started the program with Living Unlimited, with some basics -- shears and gardening tools and gloves and all those things. They were like, 'these are cool. I'm using them at home.' They're really excited about it," Murray said.

An example of the enthusiasm the students have brought to the job was the day they fixed a trail that was prone to collecting water and becoming mired with mud.

"They were down on that trail in the open sun all day long fixing a trail that collected water, laying drainage and laying stone and fabric stuff. Getting all types of stone hauled in and raking it. They were bummed because it was time to go. They wanted to finish to see the end result of their hard work," Murray said

"It was actually really neat on the way home, hearing them say they were kind of bummed because they wanted to see something. They were taking pride in the work they were doing," she said. "It's a fantastic group of kid out here. Hard workers and they get along well. They're respectful."

For Chima Uwawuike, a senior at South Williamsport Area High School, being a part of the program at Rider Park, is hopefully going to help him obtain employment this summer.

"I have a feeling that if I tell them that I work in Ryder Park like if I told them my experience then most likely they'll accept me," Uwawuike said.

His co-worker and fellow classmate at South Williamsport, Dylan Baier, agreed.

"You learn a lot of useful stuff," Baier said.

One student, Hunter Hesse, a senior at Montoursville Area High School, was in his second year in the program, having worked at the Trout Run Park last year.

When he spoke of the work that he's doing at Rider Park, there was a pride in his voice.

"What I've been doing for the last two years, just taking care of trees and making rows of mulch...sanding tables. Just taking care of this place," Hesse said.

"I've learned a lot of new skills, like knowing plants, knowing animals, insects anything that's really important. Obviously the big thing I learned was communicating with people...I know everyone's different had they have different mindsets and stuff that I just gotta get used to and try to figure a way to make it work," Hesse said.

Hesse encouraged other students who might be thinking about participating in the program to do it.

"This place is really good for you. It's like showing you what the real world is going to be," he said.

Speaking of OVR and Living Unlimited, Hesse said, "They're awesome. I really like how they give people opportunities, especially me, giving a second opportunity to do with different people and to do different things."

The only full-time manager at the park is Sara Street. She has two part-time workers and several volunteers, so she appreciated the work that the students have done.

"We have them working on projects that would be difficult for my staff to do -- things that require a lot of labor," Street said.

She commented on this first year of having the students help.

"It's been really busy. I wish I could multiply myself. Very enthusiastic, great workers-really bring a good attitude," she said. "So, I'm very happy to work with this group and I hope we can do it again."

When asked if they had exceeded her expectations, Street replied, "Absolutely."

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