Side by side, shoulder-to-shoulder, their helping hands are quickly covered in dust and dirt. But the same hands they use to wipe the sweat off their brow are used to pat each other on the back for a job well done at the end of a gruelling, but life-altering shift.
More than 30 members of the Lac La Biche and Wabasca Job Corps offices spent five days last week at the Athabasca Agriplex helping to stockpile and load donated items going to the fire-ravaged community of Slave Lake.
The mandate of Job Corps offices through out the province is to give their clients the skills and hands-on training to find meaningful employment. Humanitarian work classifies as a meaningful job.
Job Corps supervisor Dale Crossland said the crews have been working as a human conveyor belt, steadily reducing the large mountain of donated goods that were taking up almost one half of the Agriplex main floor.
“We’ve been picking up the bags and passing them down a line to the trailers. It takes about two and a half to three hours to load a 50-foot trailer. It’s really labour-intensive work.”
With 30 people, the human chain has worked pretty well, Crossland says, explaining that the work is a multi-faceted learning experience for the Job Corps clients.
“We are trying to get them ready for work, and this is something our Job Corps can do to help out the community,” he said, adding that it also teaches the clients the importance of team work. “They know that they need that many people because if we had fewer people, then the work gets that much harder for everyone.”
Fortunately, the Job Corps offices have had little trouble getting helpers.
“Everyone wants to go in there an help,” he said, admitting that not everyone may realize just how tiring the job is. “It’s hot, dirty, dusty and brutal back-breaking work. But they come out every day to do it.”
So just how do young learners make it through such a physically-demanding shift?
“There’s a lot of laughing and joking and talking, but it is a lot of hard work. I think the laughter helps,” said Crossland.
The Lac La Biche and Wabasca crew spent a total of eight days at the Agriplex, wrapping up their work last Thursday. But their relationship with the Slave Lake relief efforts may not be over just yet, as their has been some talk of sending Job Corps crews into Slave Lake to help rebuild the community.
