Debt threat may The Youth for Environmental Service objective is simple: to link young people who want to help the environment with groups that need volunteers for practical, hands-on projects.
doom popular
isle youth group
A program promoting
By Diana Leone
environmental work appeals for
donations for an overdue loan
Star-BulletinBut the survival of the nonprofit group is in question because of an overdue $50,000 loan taken out to help host the Millennium Young People's Congress in October 1999, said co-founder Sean Casey.
Casey is frantically getting the word out that the 8-year-old YES might not survive in Hawaii if it cannot pay off that debt.
"We're looking for corporate sponsors and parents of children who've been positively affected," Casey said. "We're looking for some heroes out there in the community."
Casey, who directs the nonprofit group, said YES gives presentations to 12,000 school students a semester about helping the environment. "About 8,000 of those get involved in our projects," he said.
The group puts kids to work with beach cleanups, trail restoration projects, propagation of native plants and more by partnering with environmental groups.
"We're hugely successful. We involve more children in environmental service that any other organization in the state," Casey said. "But our constituents are children, teachers and community environmental organizations" -- none of which are huge funding sources. "We have no permanent funding, so we're always writing a new grant."
"They're sort of that missing link that provides a real service to the teachers and the community," said Punahou science teacher Gail Peiterson, who has supported YES throughout its existence.
Four years ago, a partnership between YES and her school's environmental club was formed to grow and distribute native plants.
Since students involved in YES projects come from different schools and communities, Peiterson said, "it allows kids from all over the island to work together for a common goal. ... It fills a niche."
The financial straits did not come overnight, Casey said, but it has reached the point that the organization's board of directors will consider in May whether to close the Honolulu YES office and move the organization to the mainland.
"We need to make sure we're providing quality programs and not jeopardizing the safety of the program," he said. "We don't want to be a burden on anybody."
Curt Cottrell, director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources' Na Ala Hele trail system, called YES "a good program," though it has not worked on a trail restoration lately because older workers are needed for the heavy work.
"The organization continues to touch thousands of children every year," said state Rep. Brian Schatz, (D-Manoa), YES co-founder and now president of its board of directors. "There are communities across the state that have been positively affected, whether through beach and stream restoration, native gardens, or YES working with elementary school kids. We've had a really large impact, especially when you consider the size of our budget and the tough economic climate to run a nonprofit."
Schatz said YES, in helping host the Millennium Young People's Congress, which involved 700 international students and 300 students from Hawaii, "took a big hit financially, so now we've got to make some tough decisions."
According to Casey, YES's current expenses are $235,590, which includes the salary and benefits for himself and YES program directors in Honolulu and San Francisco, office expenses, $59,000 in debt service and $19,500 in "trade payables."
Income totaling $170,000 comes from grants from the Ala Wai Youth Mapping Project, Hawaii State Department of Health, several San Francisco community foundations and an anonymous Hawaii community foundation.
Find out more about YES, its projects and programs on its Web site at www.yes1.org, or call Casey at 944-9937 or 780-7326. Contributions may be mailed to P.O. Box 1042, Honolulu, HI 96808.