Environment benefits from Hire a Student Week

BY JOHN DECOSTE

The Advertiser/NovaNewsNow.com

More than 220 jobs for youth were posted at the Service Canada Centre for Youth (SCCY) in Kentville during a successful Hire a Student Week June 11-15.

Along with the youth and employers helped by the centre, the local environment will also benefit from this year’s initiative – the theme of which is “Hire a student – help our economy grow.”

In honour of the support by local employers during the week, SCCY employees Adam Casey and Rhys Cavanagh presented Kentville Parks and Recreation Director Mark Phillips with approximately 70 red spruce seedlings for planting within the town.

“Originally,” Casey noted, “the plan was to donate one seedling for every job posted during the week, but there ended up being too many.” So it was decided to choose a token number – in the case of Kentville, it ended up being around 70.

SCCYs link youth and employers and provide young people with job postings, interview advice, resume building and job search strategies. The centres also provide employers with a location to post job openings, as well as offering useful tips on health and safety.

Hire a Student Week is a region-wide initiative for SCCYs, says Jennie Enman, manager of the Centres in Kentville and Windsor. With more than 200 job postings in the Kentville office alone, this year’s event was a huge success.

“This year, we continued our tradition of helping young people find summer employment,” Enman said. “Hire a Student Week is a way to highlight the importance of getting that first job for some students, or finding career-related work experience for others.”

Phillips confirmed the seedlings would be planted within the town limits -- most likely at the western end of the Memorial Park complex near the indoor multipurpose sport facility -- by youngsters taking part in the town’s Summer Adventure Day Camps.

One of the camp events is a Blomidon Naturalist Week, scheduled for July 16-20, during which youngsters will take daily field trips to local parks.

Phillips felt having the youngsters plant the seedlings was an activity that might fit well into that schedule.