LYNN —Â Bryan Wilkins wasn’t exactly thrilled to be painting an Alley Street fire hydrant as the sun blazed down on him last week, but the city youth worker said he is happy to be making money this summer and contributing to the city.Â
“It’s good helping out and, sometimes, you get a little shade,” he said.
Wilkins, a Suffolk State University student, is one of 171 high school and college students selected through an application process this year to earn between eight and 11 dollars an hour working in local businesses and for the city.
City youth services manager John Kasian said federal money and a foundation grant pay for $260,000 in salaries for the workers through August, including the money Wilkins and fellow paint crew members Michael Mountain and Corey Wojewodzic earn.
Mountain said he will work for the city through the last Wednesday in August before he gets ready to return to classes at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute. Wojewodzic plans to spend a week in Maine after his summer job ends.
Kasian said work crews are moving school furniture, providing clerical help in City Hall, painting utility and mail boxes as well as hydrants and parking space barriers, and cleaning up parks and downtown streets.
He said the jobs put money into the students’ pockets and give the workers, in many cases, their first lesson in working.
“The important thing is instilling responsibility and making them feel good about themselves,” he said.
Classical High School students Johnson Builou and Luis Hernandez work through 1 p.m. on weekdays picking up litter on Lynn Common with work supervisor and fellow student Brendan Mageary.
“It’s money in my pocket,” Builou said.
Kasian said 24 local agencies and businesses hired youth workers this summer and 20 students work as youth counselors at Camp Ram and Camp Bulldog, the freshman orientation programs at Classical and English high schools.
