“I heard about the Maine Career Exploration Program at the Maine Outdoor Economy Summit in November and was very excited because it fits in line with my mission of having kids not only work in the shop but to be involved with the outdoors. This grant made it possible for me to get people in the shop and gave me the help for the summer that I needed. It was a very easy program to set up: I essentially hand-picked the students and the program is actually paying for 75 hours for each of them to work. I am not paying for them out of pocket – it comes out to about ten hours a week with two five-hour shifts a week.
I have two students - Sam and Annabelle - that work for me, and they are learning to production tie flies and customer service skills. They wait on customers, and they help with inventory. When people come into the shop, I introduce them as new employees and say that the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development has a grant so I was able to hire them for the summer.
I like to think about this program in terms of how COVID affected kids from the ages of 17 to 24. I have kids who were within that age group during the time of COVID and kids need to get out and have their first job experience. I think it’s a fantastic program to get kids the experience of doing things for the first time. Sam and Annabelle tell me every day all of the new skills they’re learning by having this job experience so I think it’s absolutely worth it. I would definitely host a young person again.”