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closeSeeds of growth
Troubled youth find a second chance
Heather Meier
Working at the Friends and Servants farm is supposed to be a punishment. Tilling the soil, potting plants and selling flowers at the Puyallup Farmers’ Market is one option troubled youth have for their court-appointed community service. So, when many of them arrive at the farm on the outskirts of Puyallup, they aren’t necessarily happy to be there.
But Bill Bowers and Brian Nelson assure the kids who join them at the farm that potting Fuschias, weeding the land and nailing the occasional roof onto a shed doesn’t have to be a punishment. If they tackle it with the right attitude, the plants don’t have to be the only things they see grow during their community service.
“Your life can grow and mature and you can bloom as a person,” Nelson, who runs the farm, tells the kids when they arrive. “That seed of accomplishment happens.”
Bowers started the program 16 years ago as a landscaping service for seniors in the community. Little by little, it’s expanded since then, eventually becoming a YMCA program. There’s still a landscaping portion, but Friends and Servants has grown to include a farm that has 20 varieties of annuals and raised 20,000 individual plants and potted hundreds of baskets last year.
“It amazes me,” Bowers said.
When he started the program it was because he had experienced some bumps in the road during his teen years and understood how important it is to have a positive spot.
“It’s easy for the community to write these kids off,” he said. “It’s tough being a teenager.”
That’s what he feeds on when he gives teens who are new to the program a pep talk before bringing them to the farm.
“We’re not here to punish you for your past,” he tells them. “We’re here to prepare you for your future.”
He sees his share of rolling eyes and some of the youth show up for a day or two and he never sees them again. However, 85 percent of the kids who wind up at the farm finish their community service, he said. He doesn’t know how that compares to other locations but he knows that they leave feeling a sense of accomplishment. Plus, one-third of those kids return to the farm to volunteer and mentor the troubled youth who are following in their footsteps.
That’s just what Doyle Cook plans to do when he’s done with his 51 hours of community service. In September, the 16-year-old was pulled over for driving his father’s truck without a license. Though working on the farm hasn’t changed every aspect of his life, he said he’s enjoyed the atmosphere and will be back to volunteer.
“Everyone here always has an upbeat attitude,” Cook said. “These guys help you stay on the right track.”
And even if it doesn’t always keep teens out of trouble forever, it doesn’t give the foundation of a good work ethic. Kelly Donovan was one of the first kids to do his community service through Friends and Servants back in 1992.
“I don’t remember exactly what I got in trouble for,” he said, adding that it could have been any number of things.
The required community service wasn’t a deterrent for his wild ways and it wasn’t until he was 19 or 20 that he finally cleaned his life up. Yet, even when he was still getting into trouble, he never lost a job. Bowers, he said, taught him how to work.
“The whole experience empowered me to be able to maintain a job,” he said.
He started volunteering with the organization about six years ago after Bowers asked him to speak at a fundraising banquet. A few years later, Bowers asked Donovan to head up the landscaping program. At first he said no — he had a good job and would have to take a significant pay cut if he changed careers.
When he finally accepted the position, it was the first time anyone had been in the role as a full-time employee. He decided he needed to prove himself and tripled the income in that year. Now he can’t imagine working anywhere else.
It’s the kind of success story Bowers prides himself on helping to create.
“It’s using work as the avenue to build value,” he said.
An important aspect of the program, he said, is stressing to the youth who come his way how much of the farm is a gift to them to help them head on a different life path. It’s critical to show these teens that while they may believe everyone has shunned them for their past behavior, many community organizations have donated apple trees and bushes. Even the farm itself is essentially a donation — Dale and Gwen Dewey charge about $300 a month for rent.
In return, last year the youth donated the first crop to the Puyallup food bank, Nelson said. It’s a tradition he would like to see repeated year after year.
Nelson started running the farm about three years ago. As a teacher in Puyallup schools he had developed a soft spot for troubled teens. This allows him to incorporate both of his passions.
Most of the teens spend about 40 community service hours working at the farm. During that time, Nelson makes sure they get to experience the different parts of farming. They can to plant seeds, see them grow and if they are still around in the summer, head to the farmers’ market to sell baskets. It’s important, he said, for them to see the results of their hard work.
“That is just crucial that they have that reward,” Nelson said.
There are hundreds of parallels that can be made between the harvest seasons at the Friends and Servants farm and the kids who go there.
For Nelson it comes down to this: “The dirt just seems to grow kids better than concrete and video games.”