YouthCorps workers beautify street, cemetery 
by Beverly Fortune - Lexington Herald Leader Posted Aug 4, 2007

Deontae Brank, 16, worked on a free-form public art bench near Third Street Stuff. It's made of straw bales and chicken wire covered with layers of concrete, with a checkerboard embedded in the seat. It is part of a project by Youth GreenCorps, a grass-roots initiative that has engaged more than 40 teenagers in environmental, horticultural and artistic hands-on projects in northeast Lexington over the past several months. Photo by Pablo Alcala | Staff Photo by Pablo Alcala | Staff
Deontae Brank, 16, worked on a free-form public art bench near Third Street Stuff. It's made of straw bales and chicken wire covered with layers of concrete, with a checkerboard embedded in the seat. It is part of a project by Youth GreenCorps, a grass-roots initiative that has engaged more than 40 teenagers in environmental, horticultural and artistic hands-on projects in northeast Lexington over the past several months.
Brightly painted sculpture and beds of flowers along the sidewalk are helping turn a bleak stretch of North Limestone into a colorful block that draws admiring comments from pedestrians.
"Good job. Looks wonderful," said Michelle Hargis, one of several people who paused this week to admire the transformation and talk to the teenagers who watered flowers and mounted a piece of art -- a 10-foot bead-wrapped branch -- in the ground nearby.
The Youth GreenCorps, a grass-roots initiative, has engaged more than 40 teenagers in environmental, horticultural and artistic hands-on projects in northeast Lexington over the past several months.
The teens have installed urban gardens, planted trees, built compost bins and a water garden, painted rain barrels, made birdhouses and bird feeders, pulled weeds and cleaned headstones in Cove Haven Cemetery, and created art from recycled and found objects.
A water garden beside the Third Street Stuff shop was made with rock from a construction site. "We try the best we can to be scavengers," said Marlon Johnson, 14, a Henry Clay High School student.
Yesterday was the last day for the Youth GreenCorps summer program.
Josh Johnson, 15, a student at Lafayette High School, straightened up from pulling weeds to talk about GreenCorps. "There's a lot of things we could be doing, goofing off," he said. "But we can make the community look better."
Johnson is one of five Youth GreenCorps members hired by the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program, which employed about 190 students this summer, said Susan Straub, spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Newberry. The youths worked 20 hours a week on GreenCorps projects at $5.85 an hour.
The minimum-wage job gave Johnson a chance to earn extra money for school clothes. But his main source of pride is that Limestone "looks way better," he said.
Under a shade tree near Third Street Stuff, students built a free-form bench from bales of straw and chicken wire, covered with layers of concrete. The bench is painted in shades of blue and orange, with funky heads mounted across the back and a checkerboard glued to the seat. "We're going to have pieces on it so people can come out and play," said Deontae Brank, 16, a Tates Creek High School sophomore.
Alex Blair, 15, said she had gardened a lot with her grandmother. She especially enjoyed the GreenCorps' art projects. She sat on the ground with Mariela Rich, a summer intern with Sustainable Communities Network, and the two painted signs for a Peace Pole art installation. Each sign will have the word "peace" written in a different language, 27 languages in all.
"I like painting because it's something to do with my hands," Blair said. "I'm a hands-on learner. I like art, but I've never done anything like this before."
Organizer Jim Embry said he hopes the GreenCorps will be a model for similar groups throughout Lexington next year, creating dual benefits for the teenagers and the community.
"Youth are a tremendous community resource," said Embry, founder of Sustainable Communities Network in 2005 with a start-up grant of $1,000 from LexLinc. The network sponsors the GreenCorps.
Embry founded a similar group in Detroit in 2000. "Young people need to be helping transform their community, to beautify it, plant flowers, make home repairs for community elders, take trash and make art from it."
A goal for Embry is to especially involve African-American teenage boys in community activities such as the GreenCorps to develop self-esteem and leadership skills. Of the five GreenCorps teens paid this summer, four are boys.
"The first week we planted a tree, they told me they had never dug a hole," Embry said. "They didn't know how to put their foot on a shovel. They didn't know how to plant a flower or water it."
"It was hard for Jim to get their attention at the start of the summer," said Pat Gerhard, owner of Third Street Stuff on North Limestone. "Now they are focused. They can stay on task and finish a job. They've learned to be neat. And they feel great about themselves, and that's best of all."
Earning money while beautifying the community and being creative gives teenagers a sense of purpose and self-confidence "that transforms them," Embry said.
Another benefit of GreenCorps programs is that it gets kids outside in the summer. After nine months in school, "all these kids in this neighborhood, inside of sitting inside, could be outside cleaning up their neighborhood," Embry said.
The beautification of Limestone is a three-year collaborative effort between Youth GreenCorps and the North Limestone Neighborhood Association, Embry said, to help upgrade the street.
By harnessing the enthusiasm and creativity of teenagers with a Youth GreenCorps in each council district, Embry said, the city could do something positive for the youngsters, and at the same time beautify Lexington in time for the 2010 World Equestrian Games.
"There are big projects planned for entrances to the city like Newtown Pike and Winchester Road. But it's important that community people feel the same kind of energy around the Games. And they can do that by beautifying their neighborhoods," he said.