YCC workers serve community, learn new skills
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie
Student workers Jacob Arviso, Larris Castro and Max Becenti shovel tree mulch into a wheel barrel for a garden bed they are making in front of Shiprock Chapter House on Friday.
SHIPROCK
The Youth Conservation Corps has been hard at work getting Shiprock Chapter House into tip-top shape.
Beginning in February, the first group of 22 workers ages 18 to 25 started by cleaning out two miles of land behind the chapter house to create a walking trail.
This was Brandie Lee’s first time working for the organization and she didn’t expect to be lifting old mattresses in the blistering cold behind the chapter house.
“There was also a fence right here and we had to take it all down because a lot of trees and weeds were stuck on it,” Lee said, pointing to the cleared path.
The area was so filled with debris one couldn’t even walk through. This is concerning because all of this trash was right next to Dream Diné Charter School.
“You couldn’t even walk here because there were so many trees blocking the path,” she said.
But those concerns are gone now.
“It does feel good to see how far you can see now and how clean it looks,” Lee, 23, who is from Shiprock, said.
This isn’t the only project the group has accomplished. They also created a shaded porch for elders to sit under and are currently working on a flowerbed for the front of the chapter house.
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