The Mag Interview | Teens spread the ‘green’ message - KansasCity.com Page 1 of 2 78° High 49° Low 58° Intermittent clouds Forecast Weather HOME NEWS ABOUT US SPORTS JOBS CARS BUSINESS LIFESTYLE HOMES RENTALS Posted on Wed, Sep. 12, 2012 11:00 AM Share Email alert ENTERTAINMENT CLASSIFIEDS OPINION STAR SITES OBITS PLACE AN AD LOCAL SHOPPING Read more The Kansas City Star Magazine Print KansasCity.com Web Search powered by YAHOO! SEARCH THE MAG INTERVIEW The Mag Interview | Teens spread the ‘green’ message BY CINDY HOEDEL The Kansas City Star Kate Corwin of Kansas City is president of Green Works, a nonprofit organization that provides environmental education and internships for urban youths. Green Works is having a fundraiser Oct. 11 at the KCP&L Energy Center. It will be a zero-waste event and have local food, a local cocktail by Justus Drugstore and Eco Elvis (information and tickets at GreenWorksKC.org). This conversation took place at the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center. DEALSAVER'S™ DEAL OF THE DAY $12 for $25 Single Pumpkin Patch and T-Bones Corn Maze Season Pass. KC Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze Green Works just got a $50,000 grant from the Audubon Foundation for habitat restoration work along Brush Creek. What are you doing with that money? Near the Benton Bridge there is a natural oxbow formation in the creek. We are planting native plants and trees and putting up birdhouses along there. What kind of education do you provide to the high school students you work with? We have a one-year after-school program where we teach kids all about the environment in Kansas City. We talk about water issues and the big sewer project that’s coming up and how important that is. We talk about solid waste and landfills and recycling. We also raise money to place students who complete our program in summer internships. $12 Value: Discount: You Save: Where are some places you have placed kids in internships? We have a couple working here at the Discovery Center. We have some working at the Environmental Protection Agency, at Habitat ReStore, at StoneLion Puppet Theatre and other companies. That gives them meaningful job experience. RICH SUGG Kate Corwin of Kansas City is president of Green Works, a nonprofit organization that provides environmental education and internships for urban youths. More News Can you share an example of how your program has changed a student’s life? One of our first students came from an extremely difficult home life situation. She was 17 at the time. She was in our program two years and had internships here at the Discovery Center and at the EPA. Those internships helped her get into a good college and now she’s in her second year studying toward a pharmacy degree. So the kids don’t always end up in “green” jobs? $25 52% $13 Enter your e-mail to receive daily updates Register Friday: Five things to do Pinot noir is king in Oregon vineyards Jake and the Never Land Pirates Race Event KC’s canine cops are tough to beat Zona Rosa Art Festival Jesse James Festival Stories behind City Market eateries begin with families The Mag Interview | Teens spread the ‘green’ message My Homework Folder Craft Sprint Family Fun Days – Tails & Beaks First of All … | Rooster need a bath? I’m just the person for the job Love Story | He helped her love again after loss No. We certainly hope that they do, maybe later in their career, but the larger point is, no matter what our students decide to be — whether it’s a pharmacist, whether it’s a dry cleaner, whether they own a restaurant — all those businesses need to be greened and run in a sustainable way. CHILD CARE TEACHERS La Petitie Academy Academic Reading Instructor Why did you decide to focus on high school kids? You get so much bang for your buck. They talk, they text. If you take pictures of them they send them all over the place with messages like, “We’re planting trees!” “We’re planting a rain garden!” So they are passing the message along to their friends and families. And we are educating the next generation of taxpayers and voters. We need people to understand how serious our water infrastructure issue is, for example. Excelsior Springs Job Corp LEGAL ASSISTANT Bookkeeper Pet Air, Inc. Executive Assistant Central Power Systems & Services, Inc. How did you come to start this nonprofit? You used to be an IT engineer. Yes. In 1996 I was working at Sprint and my best friend from college died. I realized that I liked my career but it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing. So I left Sprint and in 1997 started a furniture manufacturing company. What kind of furniture? Apartment Maintenance Helper View More THE MOST Read Garden furniture out of cedar. We did storage benches and little storage sheds. We had several locations where we manufactured. The biggest one was in the West Bottoms behind the Beast haunted house. We sold our products to Jackson & Perkins and Plow & Hearth and Target. It was really successful until 2005, when a lot of the big box retailers decided they were going to get into garden furniture and the manufacturing was all moving overseas. I knew it was over when I walked into Target one day and saw an exact replica of my storage bench selling for less than I could purchase the materials for. Did you think about moving your production overseas? No. I started the company because I wanted to create jobs in Kansas City. That was good experience for starting a nonprofit, especially in a recession, which is not the easiest thing to do. That’s why we are really celebrating our five-year anniversary, because a lot of funders won’t fund an organization until it is at least five years old. Why do you think you made it five years in a recession? I’m really good at figuring out how to not spend money. I have an undergraduate degree in finance and a master’s in economics. Commented Commentary: Maybe Mitt Romney should make voters worry Love’s secrets, finally revealed Royals rally for 4-3 victory over White Sox on Hosmer’s walk-off single Unattended toddler locked inside filthy home is rescued MoDOT worker killed while working I-70 crash Salvador Perez sets Royals record for pickoffs AT&T worker dies after being assaulted on the job in Gladstone Missouri teen charged in school shooting plot Mizzou’s Kony Ealy doesn’t have to look far for What are some examples of how you don’t spend money? We buy all our office furniture at Surplus Exchange. We borrow equipment that we need if it isn’t something we are going to use every day. We have an email list of about 50 people who help us find things we need. Usually somebody responds that they can get us whatever it is. If I don’t have to pay for office supplies, that’s that much more money I can use toward paying for an internship for a kid. People don’t want to write a check and think it’s going to buy doughnuts or permanent markers. Exactly. Why do you have to pay for internships? We pay the students an internship stipend of $8 an hour, and we raise the money for that. The organizations that offer the internships don’t have to pay anything. They look at the kids as volunteers and it works best that way. Why? Oftentimes this is a kid’s very first job experience. The student might not even have a role model at home who knows what it’s like to have a regular job. It takes time to mentor that student. We say: “We’ll invest the money for the stipend if you will invest the time to train the kid.” And raising money to pay for an internship for a specific kid is easier than raising money for educational programs. How many kids have you placed in internships? Thirty-four. And we only had one situation where it didn’t work out, and we aren’t even sure if that one case was the student’s doing. That’s a good ratio. A lot of kids mess up their first job, no matter what their circumstances. Absolutely. And our kids do have added difficulties, particularly with transportation. As the city cuts back on bus routes, it affects our kids being able to get to the job. We have two kids this year working at the current EPA headquarters in Kansas City, Kan. I’m not sure we can get them to the new headquarters when it moves to Lenexa. It’s ironic, because that is our very best placement. That is the one that looks best on a student’s resume. To reach Cindy Hoedel, call 816-234-4304 or send email to [email protected]. Follow her at Twitter.com/cindyhoedel or on Facebook. Posted on Wed, Sep. 12, 2012 11:00 AM Share Email Print http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/12/3809292/teens-spread-the-green-message.html 9/21/2012 The Mag Interview | Teens spread the ‘green’ message - KansasCity.com Page 2 of 2 ADVERTISEMENT Have a $500k portfolio? Ken Fisher, a 27-year Forbes columnist, has a retirement guide for you! Over 1 million people have found relief with this secret, now available in Kansas... [SEPT 2012]: Drivers in Kansas may be eligible to get insurance for as low as $9/week! Lebo - New rule allows many Kansas residents to get car insurance at half-price. Like Add New Comment Login Type your comment here. Real-time updating is enabled. (Pause) Showing 1 comment Sort by newest first LogomachyFreak #http://goo.gl/8JXNC 5 days ago Report Abuse Like Reply Subscribe by email S RSS M Woman is 51 But Looks 25 Mom publishes simple wrinkle secret that has angered doctors... 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