Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Environmental issues affect everyone - young and old, rich and poor, man and woman.
Tuesday, Lakes Area Earth Service Corps held its first meeting at Camp Crosley YMCA, North Webster.
Earth Service Corps is a YMCA, youth and community partnership program for young adults ages 13-16. It supports the development of youth-led clubs and provides environmental education opportunities, leadership training, service-learning, international/cross-cultural experiences and exposure to a multitude of ways to take effective action.
The Lakes Area ESC is being lead by Kosciusko Community YMCA teen and family director Ryan Finney and Marcus Appleton, Camp Crosley YMCA group camping director. The actual projects and programs will be led by the youth.
"Earth Service Corps is a national program," Appleton told the youth at the first meeting. It began in Seattle in the late 1980s with only two directors and eight youths. Today the Seattle group is the largest in the nation with more than 800 members, he said.
Appleton previously worked in Louisville, Ky., where he led a ESC program. When he came to this area and to Camp Crosley YMCA, he wanted to begin an ESC program. He received a J.C. Penney grant for $3,000. Unbeknownst to Appleton, Finney received a $1,700 grant from YMCA USA to also begin a ESC program. The two connected and decided to join forces.
Lakes Area ESC will encompass Syracuse, North Webster, Warsaw, Winona Lake and Pierceton and surrounding areas.
"This area is crying out for an Earth Service Corps," said Appleton. "It is crying out."
They will meet once a month. Once every three months they will meet at Camp Crosley for an overnight stay and last-minute planning of their service projects. Monthly meetings will be scheduled alternately at the Kosciusko Community YMCA and Camp Crosley YMCA.
Project ideas the group may focus on include: projects to help endangered species; work with local agencies to help maintain local waterways; adopt a highway; lake, river and park cleanups; camping experience; plant and tree planting to counteract erosion; and graffiti clean-up.
There is no fee for becoming a member of Earth Service Corps. "This is a free program," said Finney. "Absolutely free. ... We will never ask you for money." Participants may be involved in some fund-raising, but they will not be asked for money themselves.
Many teen-agers, Appleton said, are telling them they want programs held outside and where they can help the community.
"We want to make sure our Earth Service Corps is like no other Earth Service Corps in the nation," said Appleton.
Objectives of the program are to: encourage young people to examine environmental issues; help young people learn and practice leadership skills; help young people explore attitudes of different cultures toward the environment; advance education through action; promote broad understanding and appreciation of diversity; expose young people to career opportunities; and stimulate expansion of ESC locally, nationally and internationally.
Finney said, "We believe in this program."
For more information, call Lakes Area Earth Service Corps at 877-811-6189, Camp Crosley YMCA at 834-2331, Kosciusko Community YMCA at 269-9622 or e-mail earthservicecorps@yahoo.com
