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As a member of the Cowpens National Battlefield's Youth Conservation Corps, Evelyn Lester is spending the summer trimming weeds and hauling trash.
It's the 15-year-old's first job – hard, hot, and minimum wage. But Evelyn, a rising 10th-grader at Gaffney (S.C.) High School, said it's fun being part of a 12-member team at the 840-acre national park about 60 miles south of Charlotte.
Federal stimulus money has allowed Cowpens to double the number of participants in the eight-week, summer-employment program for ages 15 through 18. Teams are also working at the Kings Mountain National Military Park and Ninety Six National Historic Site near Greenwood, S.C.
At Cowpens, 50 students applied for the 12 positions, and names were drawn out of a hat. Evelyn works alongside young people from Cherokee and Spartanburg counties in South Carolina and Rutherford County, N.C. She's trying to follow advice from her mother, Michelle, a former youth corps member now working with the National Park Service at Cowpens.
“She told me when you see something that needs to be done, go ahead and do it,” Evelyn said.
Established in the early 1970s, the program gives young people a chance to learn good work habits and stewardship of the land. Daily environmental awareness classes are part of the schedule.
“The program also gives young people exposure to what the park is all about, along with a sense of ownership,” said Cowpens Superintendent Tim Stone. “And it helps the park become connected to the community.”
Cowpens is the site of the Jan. 17, 1781, battle where outnumbered American troops under Daniel Morgan defeated a crack British unit led by Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton.
The section where Morgan scored his victory became a farming community known as the “Battleground.” In the early 1970s, when Park Ranger Ginny Fowler was growing up in nearby Chesnee, S.C., the “Battleground” had a large monument on one acre, but no facilities for visitors.
“I was riding my bike one day and somebody stopped and asked how to get there,” she said. “I wondered why in the world why anyone would want to go to the Battleground. I had no appreciation for the place. Now, I tell people how to get there.”
As the park expanded, a temporary visitors center opened in 1978 and that summer Fowler joined the first youth conservation corps project there.
“We were a tight group,” she said. “I didn't want the summer to end.”
Fowler sees the youth corps as the stepping-stone to her career in the National Park Service.
This summer, crews take turns working in two areas: the main park and the woods.
In the sections most visible to visitors, YCC members are weed-eating, painting, cleaning picnic tables, mulching, pruning trees and picking up litter.
In the woods, they're hauling off debris from old homes and businesses demolished when the park was being developed in the 1970s. Entangled in the jungle are foundations of houses, brick, metal, fencing and old cars.
Fowler said 24 tons of debris has been removed since the youth corps started work on June 8.
Jon Harris of Gaffney is back for his third summer with the crew. So far, he's dodged poison ivy and hasn't been stung by yellow jackets, although “they'll probably get me again before it's all over.”
Flipping burgers was a possibility this summer, said Harris, who is headed to Spartanburg Methodist College in August. But he's glad things worked out for another gig at Cowpens.
“It's the camaraderie,” he said. “Working together. And making a difference.”
