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Community Corner

Teen Job Market Get Boost From Restless Retiree

Company pairs students with homeowners in need of helping hand.

It isn’t long after entering the administrator’s office at Huntley High School that Eleanor Workman makes her way to the end of the counter and reaches into a mail slot.

“This is my spot,” says Workman, followed by a short, hearty laugh perhaps acknowledging the irony on an outsider having a designated spot in the administrator’s office. Workman, 80, is still quick and discerning in that regard.

She removes two pieces of paper from the slot and briefly scans them – she’ll examine them closer when she returns to the modest office in her home – then holds the papers up for a reporter to see.

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“Two more applications,” she says with just a hint of a smile now. Clearly her mind has moved on to finding ways to meet this new challenge and how to go about helping people during the process. It’s an equation Workman has sought and solved throughout her life, and one that helped inspire the company Hire a High School Helper.

Created almost a year ago, Hire a High School Helper matches Huntley High students seeking jobs with homeowners, particularly Sun City residents, in need of affordable landscapers. Students apply for work by filling out an application and placing it in Workman’s spot in the school’s administration office while those in need of landscaping services contact Workman directly.

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Depending on the project, prices range from $10 to $40 with students available to rake leaves, mow lawns, pull weeds, put down mulch, clean out garages, and shovel snow. Among the jobs students will not do is housework, as Workman forbids them for entering customer’s homes. Also, cell phones are a no-no on the job site.

“As long as (the students) do a good job, I don’t mind hiring them and working with them. I don’t make any money. I’m a volunteer. Do you believe that?” asks Workman, who then laughs at the irony. Workman is so focused on the students that she declined to be photographed for the story believing it would take away from them.

Still, that isn’t to say Workman receives no rewards for her time. In fact, it was the challenge of how to fill her free time that prompted Workman to start Hire a High School Helper.

“I knew that the kids were losing their jobs or not working, and I was a very bored person living here by myself,” said Workman, a Sun City resident. “I’ve run businesses since I was 18 years old, and I couldn’t get use to being alone and having no people around me.”

Even so, Workman says things didn’t begin to fall into place until, well, opportunity knocked.

“We had a heavy snow storm (in 2010) and a boy from the high school came and knocked on my door,” Workman said. “He asked if I wanted my driveway shoveled and I said, ‘Oh boy, the Good Lord has sent you to me.’”

After that, Workman began hiring the student, Clayton Oates, for odd jobs around her house and used him until last year when he graduated and joined the Air Force.

“He had to leave,” Workman said. “But from that time on, I sat and I thought about it and I said, ‘You know it’s time I get in with the kids and get them working.’ I did not want to see the kids not work because they get in too much trouble. Especially the summer months. I just feel it’s important.”

With the assistance of Huntley principal Dave Johnson, Workman launched Hire a High School Helper. She says her roster of student workers varies in size with four students having recently passed an interview with her and been given work assignments. One of the students, John Augustine, 18, was especially pleased to have found a job, his first.

“It’s been really hard,” Augustine said. “I’ve applied all over. Like on Randall Road, everywhere there. At all the retail places, all the restaurants.”

Michelle Nixon, 18, says she hopes the job will help her gain experience working with seniors as she looks to a career as a certified nurse’s assistant.

In addition to providing work, Workman, who calls herself “a giver”, tries to teach students some of the business skills she has acquired over the years. Her experience is varied. She owned a custom drapery business then, when the challenge to help others arose, she was the producer of the first insulated delivery bags for Meal on Wheels.

 “Once I take (the customer’s information) and give it to the kids, (the kids) have to follow through so they’re basically learning business.” Workman said. “I have told (the kids) that they have to keep records so that if somebody calls who they haven’t talked to in a while, they know exactly what (the customer) needs done and what was done the last time. That’s very important so they can talk with some intelligence, to put it that way, and that’s what I want from the kids.”

The insulated bags Workman created later spread to the restaurant and pizza industry, sparking the growth of her company. Now, five years after selling that business and "retiring," Workman is running another firm poised to flourish. Going forward, Workman says she plans to broaden her workforce and customer base while hiring volunteers to help coordinate matters.

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