YouthWork



Unlike the volunteers living and working at the rock, the boat operator does not work all day long in a sometimes cold and humid tower, traipse up and down up to nine flights of stairs or listen to wind howling, waves crashing. We also don’t catch the beautiful sunrises and sunsets from on high or have a 360-degree view of the night sky. The boat operator, when not operating the boat to transport folks to and from Windigo and the Rock, plays Uber, waiting for a service call from the light, if any. So the days those volunteers work at that lighthouse, we do odd jobs. Some defined - like painting the outside of the headquarters cabin - and lots of jobs we think up ourselves. Performing boat repairs like wiring or sealing small holes in the roof left by the Park Service when they removed equipment in the past, or re-anchoring hand holds. Cleaning this, organizing that. Sitting on the rocks, observing boat traffic, working the row boat to visit neighbors. You know…odd jobs.

One of those odd jobs was to help the Park Service crew that arrived one morning to recover some building logs stored at the Johns Hotel restoration site. These logs were anywhere from 8” to 12” in diameter, and from 8 to 20 feet in length, and were headed for another construction site. And they were heavy.



It introduced me to “YouthWorks Conservation Corps.” It said so on the backs of five kids working on the crew, led by one more senior and skilled leader, and the National Park Service Cultural Resource Manager. I Googled the organization (yes, we have 5G service out here, but only on occasion, usually at dusk, and only on the shore-side knoll next to the cabin).

Youth Conservation Corps - National Park Service

Nope, that’s not it. Though that’s a cool organization, too, catering to youth that wants to work specifically in a National Park at minimum wage. Other than Yellowstone, however, they need to arrange their own transportation to the park daily. No crew quarters on site. That couldn’t be the case here at Isle Royale. You’d spend all your time on a boat, with no real time to work.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service also have Youth Conservation Corps, operating on the same model.

American Youthworks

Nope, that’s not it. Texas and Louisiana only, focused on coastal areas and disaster areas. It seems that many states have their own youth “Conservation Corps.” 

YouthWork Conservation Corp - Michigan


Yep, that’s it. Michigan’s version, has the same intent of youth serving the conservation projects of public and non-profit organizations, but with a slightly more specific focus. In their words:

YouthWork intentionally recruits members who live with disabilities or delays, face barriers to employment, have experienced trauma such as abuse or neglect, are homeless or at risk of homelessness, or face other challenges at home or in their community. 

I could observe none of those background characteristics in this group. They all seemed quite normally adapted, hard-working, dedicated, and engaged kids working for six weeks in the wilderness on various park service projects. They worked together as a team, obviously trained in safety procedures (especially how to lift a heavy load with legs, not back), and communicated with each other constantly. It was a real pleasure giving them a hand to make four mule teams (two people on each of four timber skidding tongs) instead of the three made possible by the work team of seven. 

By the end of the morning, I was sitting on the dockside bench waving them goodbye as the LCM pulled out, heading for Crystal Cove, where they would unload the logs, having moved each log three times by then. Long day, of three days of log lifting. I didn’t move from that bench for quite some time, glad that there was no one to observe the hobbled walk back to the cabin, done for the day. I guess I missed the “legs-not-back” lesson. 





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