KDLG's Thea Card spoke with some of the kids in the recent Arctic Tern program and read their thank you notes.
The Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation’s Arctic Tern program grants $6,000 to communities in Bristol Bay to be used to support and foster jobs for young residents between the ages of 14 and 17. Recently a group of kids in Manokotak worked in the program. KDLG’sThea Card spoke with them.
“My favorite part was we all got to work together helping each other out.”
This is 11th grader in Manokotak Janessa Black. She’s one of several students in the village that participated in BBEDC’s Arctic Tern this year.
Community liaison for BBEDC in Manokotak Tessa Nickerson says this group was called Youth Earn to Learn.
“And they worked by cleaning the local church and the local church area and the parsonage. And it’s a great opportunity for them to earn an income and learning how to work.”
She says this program is important because it teaches the kids the importance of working and being employed while helping in the community.
However, it would seem the youth got more than just money out of the experience. The kids wrote letters to BBEDC thanking it for the opportunity they were given.
“Dear BBEDC, I would like to thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to have us work as youth intern. Working for the past two weeks helped us learn that sometimes work van be hard, but also it can be easy.”
“Dear BBEDC, thanks for a two week job. It was tiring but I had fun cleaning the church and its property, this was my first job I ever had. Thank you for the opportunity.”
Those letters were from Janessa Black and 8th grader Isaiah Anaver.
Some of the kids were happy to get out of school and others were glad to get out of homework.
“Dear BBEDC, thank you for the opportunity to have us clean and work. Working for two weeks was fun. Thank you for letting us work because there was nothing to do after. This job was both fun and boring. I hope I get accepted next year.”
“Dear BBEDC, thank you for giving us the opportunity to have us work for two weeks. We would have been bored if we didn’t you people gave us teenagers an easy job. I now have enough money to get the things I need. Quyana!”
“Dear BBEDC, thank you very much for letting us work and giving us something to do after school. It gave us an excuse to not do homework… jk. But we all learned something from this two week job. It was fun and hope to do this again. Some days were very astounding and fun, so once again thank you.”
That was 7th grader Joseph Nanalook, 10th grader Tamra Andrew and 10th grader Leah John. No matter what the reason, the kids all agree the BBEDC Arctic Tern program is fun and a great experience.