"It was like Christmas in June when they showed up at our front door," said an elated Trail of Tears State Park Superintendent Hershel Price.

Price was referring to the 11 young people who are participating in a pilot project designed to give disadvantaged young people of Cape Girardeau County job skills and experience needed to hold a job while completing their education.

The 11 participants are the first members of the Cape Girardeau County Missouri Youth Services Conservation Corps, a six-month program administered locally by the Southeast Missouri Private Industry Council, East Missouri Action Agency, and the Cape Girardeau County office of the Division of Family Services.

For those who remember the Depression of the 1930s, the MYSCC program is similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps program of that period. The CCC was instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration to put unemployed young men to work on community projects.

Robert Ruble, director of East Missouri Action Agency of Cape Girardeau, said Missouri Youth Services Conservation Corps is designed to provide people ages 16 to 21 with the necessary education, work experience and job skills they need to find and hold a job.

Ruble explained that by teaching them basic work skills it is hoped they become working, taxpaying citizens.

In return for the training, Ruble said the participants put in a regular work day by providing community service to the Cape Girardeau County area.

Two days each week participants work alongside the park's maintenance staff on maintenance and improvement projects.

"We've had backlogged projects ready to go, we've had the materials setting around, but until now we didn't have anyone to do the work," said Price. "Now that we've got some folks to help us we're just tickled to death."

On Wednesday the participants were busy constructing a free-standing rock wall in back of the park's Visitors Center. Price said they also dug a pea-gravel walkway to the bathhouse in the lower campground, and will soon start work on a boardwalk to the outdoor amphitheater, which will be used for the first time on July 4.

"We're also meeting with (county Presiding) Commissioner Gene Huckstep and the Cape Girardeau County Commission to see how the MYSCC can assist the county in community projects," Ruble said.

Two other days of the week the participants work on weatherization and energy conservation projects in homes of the elderly of Cape Girardeau County.

Ruble said the fifth day is spent in the classroom, where they study for their GED or high school diploma, and are taught living and job skills necessary to hold a job.

"The program has just started, but these people have already come a long way in a lot of ways," Ruble said.

Ruble said the participants are supervised by two MYSCC supervisors. Virgil Crank is a retired Navy chief petty officer and retired vocational-technical industrial-arts teacher from Ironton who has done extensive work with disadvantaged youths in Southeast Missouri. Scott Porter is from New York, where he worked with inner-city youths on community projects.

Ruble said the MYSCC group has completed 12 weatherization and home energy conservation projects and is looking for more homes to work on.

"We've had a lot of positive response from this kind of work, but now we need more homes to work on through the rest of the summer," he said. "Qualified homeowners who need this kind of work done on their homes should contact the East Missouri Action Agency, 334-5533, for more information."

Participants must be at a high risk for school dropout, lack job skills, be unable to hold a job, and have a financial need.

At the start of the program, each corps member was given an assessment by the Cape Girardeau Vocational-Technical School to determine their vocational, educational, occupational literacy and life-skills level. Ruble said an individual plan for each participant was established to allow them to develop positive attitudes toward themselves.

"Four of the 11 in the group are young ladies who are now developing good work habits and skills," said Ruble. "Two of the 11 were homeless, living in their cars, when they enrolled in the program. Now they live in an apartment and are developing the daily living skills they need to keep a job."

Ruble said two of the participants were referred to the MYSCC program by the Division of Family Service's FUTURES program, which is designed to help people get off welfare. "The others were referred to us from local group homes, counselors, and some just walked into our office and interviewed for the program."

Ruble said the pilot program is only funded for six months.

"We've applied for funding to continue the program after October," he said. "If we are funded, we'll continue the program for another six months. Next year we're hoping that we can get enough money to expand the Missouri Youth Services Conservation Corps throughout our seven-county, Southeast Missouri service area."