Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.     Four years ago Dennon Jones was hired to be part of a newly formed collaboration between the Lincoln Hills Fly Fishing Club and TEENS, Inc. He is now a junior supervisor of the TeamWorks program and joined celebrating the past summer with 17 other students who completed the two-month program.

Dennon has seen huge changes in the past four years. "Every year the program became more organized. I never expected to get as much done as we have this summer. I came home tired at night but proud of what we had accomplished."

TEENS, Inc. executive director Stephen Lefaiver says that he was contacted five years ago by a Denver philanthropist/business owner who wanted to partner with the teen center in starting a camp for mountain and metro youth. Three kids from Denver and three from Nederland were the first team to work with TeamWorks. They hauled slash and pulled weeds, working mostly on the fly-fishing property, helping with habitat restoration, the planting of aspens and other natural foliage.

Each year the project got bigger and more extensive. This past summer TeamWorks consisted of 10 teens from Denver and 10 teens from Nederland. Of those 20, 17 completed the work for the summer and received a Certificate of Completion. Lefaiver says the team put in about 2,000 person-hours of work to earn the completion.

Since its inception, TeamWorks has moved from being at Lincoln Hills exclusively to working in and around the community. The kids partnered with teams from Longmont, Denver, and Lyons to do flood relief work three days a week, helping private property owners and public organizations reclaim their land after last September's devastation.

Molly Kohn, TeamWorks Director and Teen Center Director, said helping Doug Spence, a Longmont man, was one of the most rewarding experiences. "He is such a nice person and his property was destroyed by the flood and he had been unable to remove the debris. It was so much hard work and he was so grateful."

Kohn says her group spent a whole day under a recreation vehicle buried in mud and debris. They volunteered at a farm where they hugged goats and shoveled horse manure. They took the team to many places they would not have had the chance to see

Spence showed up at the End of Summer celebration to thank the TeamWorks kids again. Kohn says the camaraderie between the Denver and Nederland kids helped them build character and fortitude. "There is nothing like hard work to gel a relationship among those involved."

Kevin Corro, a Nederland High School graduate, said the program has impacted his life, allowing him to study at school, continuing his education. He values the friendships he has made with crew members and says, "I owe a lot of my success in and out of school to the program and the people in it."

Alaya Russell-Coprich, 16, from Denver, says, "TeamWorks was my first job and it taught me a bunch that I hadn't realized I was capable of, like building trails or flood relief. It was hard at time, but it made me a stronger person physically and mentally and now I know I will be able to do anything else if I put my mind to it. This has been one of my best summers so far and I will live with the different people and adventures forever."

Ali Jones, a NHS graduate, says, "I never saw myself being successful in a job  that consists mainly of manual labor, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the days of heavy shoveling, hauling railroad ties and dirt, pushing a wheelbarrow. and swinging a pickax. which gave me a sense of fulfillment.

"I learned that patience, understanding and fun are some of the most important values in making a crew run smoothly."

Two scholarships were awarded at the End of Summer ceremony, the $1,000 Kingfisher Award and a $3,500 Osprey Award, each with the condition that the students maintain a 3.0 or better grade point average.

The program is open to teens from 16-20 years old and pays $9-$11, with $13 an hour to the junior supervisors. To be part of the team, one must apply and then interview for the job. Applications will be available in mid-April for next summer’s team.