[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the Root Cellar podcast.
We believe that God is at work restoring broken lives, families and neighborhoods around the corner in Lewiston and Portland, Maine, across New England and the world.
On this podcast, we'll discuss what God is doing on our team at the Root Cellar through our partners in Maine, uh, and invite guests from away to share how God is at work among them.
I'm your host, Joel Furrow. Uh, thanks for joining us.
Batman thrives in Jesus Christ Cause he loves them both. We're all cast away in need of rope Hanging on by the last threads of our hope.
Welcome back to another edition of the Root Cellar podcast.
I'm really excited for you to hear today's conversation. I had a chance to sit down and talk with Damon Kraus, one of our program coordinators in Lewiston. He loves that city, uh, in such just so authentically fully with his life. He and his wife, uh, Vicki Kraus are part of our team. So his wife Vicki is our administrative coordinator. Damon serves as one of our program coordinators and has been involved in so many areas of the Root Cellar over the last 10 years, both as a volunteer and as an employee.
He's really been the heartbeat of Lou Crew in the last several years and seeing it grow into what it is today. And I can't wait for you to hear his perspective on what God is doing and how he is using our teams to restore that community. It's a really great conversation. I hope you enjoy it. Before we jump into the conversation today with Damon, I'm going to ask you to hit the subscribe button on whatever app you're using, whatever website you're using, YouTube, Apple, Podcast, Spotify, hit the subscribe button and give us a rating.
It can be a, it can be a poor rating. If you wanted to be a poor rating. It's always presumptuous to ask for a five star rating, but if you give us a high ranking rating, it helps us to be more visible and kind of grow this and get the word out about the root seller to more people. We'd really appreciate those two things if you could do it. Before we jump into the conversation with Damon, here's a video to tell you a little bit more about what Lou Crew is and how it is being used to transform the lives of teens and hopefully the future of the downtown community in Lewiston. Take a look.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Lou Crew is a teen work experience program.
It is an opportunity for teens to prepare for jobs or careers, but not only by having a job and having a, like that first job, um, but Also learning how to be a whole person.
[00:02:51] Speaker C: The Lou Crew is a work experience program that involves four key. Work, play, grow, and gather.
And it's a program where we're able to engage teens in almost every aspect of life, um, whether it's spiritual wholeness, economic wholeness, social wholeness.
It's a program where teens get to find community.
They get to really create this extended family.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: So when we're mentoring teens, we want them to be the most awesome employees that they could possibly be, um, in the workforce in Lewiston and beyond. But we also want them just to be, be the most awesome people of God that they could be.
[00:03:39] Speaker C: I think it's really important that these teams are learning the skills of simply showing up on time and having expectations put on them that they have to follow through with, um, and being held accountable to a standard, um, that they wouldn't otherwise have in maybe another summer camp setting.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: The relationship that built here at Rusella was kind of like, cool because everybody here is a family and friend. Doesn't really feel young or older.
I think that the bond that we have, it is very strong.
I feel like I'm at home when I came here, like it's my second house.
I just look at everyone as a family here.
[00:04:26] Speaker C: Comfortability with one another, um, and a willingness to reach out for help shows how deep the connections are and how comfortable the mentees are with the mentors.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: So our Luke routines are so awesome. They are incredibly resilient and creative and courageous.
And it is so fun to watch them, um, build friendships with one another, to go on adventures and to try things that are completely new.
It's incredible. They inspire me in their willingness to be inclusive and to prioritize well, um, what is truly important, we've noticed over.
[00:05:17] Speaker C: The years when we're able to work together, play together, grow together and gather together, it just creates an environment where teams become family.
If it was just work, you would miss out on a lot of different aspects of sharing life together.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: The Root Cellar engages neighbors and volunteers to cultivate social, economic, in spiritual wholeness as part of God's kingdom.
We are able to do this work thanks to generous individuals like you.
To volunteer, make a gift, or learn more, join us
[email protected] Damon, how you doing?
[00:06:06] Speaker C: What's going on, Joel? So good to be here. We're going to talk about Duke sweeping, uh, UNC this year. Right.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: I think we're going to discuss the fact that Duke is still about 30 games behind in the all time rankings. Uh, we could, we could talk about Dukes and Cooper Flag's underwhelming, disappointing performance in March.
Um, so that's.
But that's okay. We won't, we won't trash on Cooper Flag too hard. This is a main based, uh, podcast, after all, so we do kind of have to cheer for him, even though I will never cheer for his alma mater.
Yeah. Damon. Damon. Damon's already jumped into the, the weeds here. It's worth noting he is probably one of like three people on the planet that is a Duke fan that I enjoy talking to, um, uh, and hanging out with. Uh, so it's. I'm really, really grateful for that rivalry.
It's worked out on, on my end a few more times than his as I'm a big Carolina fan. So.
Uh, but beyond basketball and college basketball, at the Root Cellar, we actually talk about a lot of other things. Do a lot of the things besides watch sports. Damon, as everybody knows now just in the intro, leads a number of our programs. Lou Crew, we will talk a little bit more about In Depth in a minute. But Damon, what else do you do at the Root Cellar?
[00:07:26] Speaker C: Yeah, um, you had Fitz on a couple episodes ago talking about the Path Forward, another program that I help coordinate. We have the Abundant Food Share, which I also help coordinate that those are three main things I help out with.
Um, Lou Crew, Food Share, and Path Forward.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: So, yeah, and that's, that's pretty indicative of kind of how our team functions, uh, at, at the Root Cellar, really in both locations is you have an employee that's kind of involved in a number of different ministries, programs across the board, serving in multiple capacities. And, uh, and, and Damon is a great example of that. It's pretty, pretty normal. It was my job as a coordinator. It's been, you know, now other jobs now yours and others, you know, of those, of those responsibilities, you know, you've, you've been with the organization for a number of years in different ways, you know, kind of came to us in it, I think, in kind of a unique path and in a way that most people don't know about, you know. So how. What's the story? How did you, how did you even end up in Lewison to begin with?
[00:08:28] Speaker C: Yeah. So I think this August will mark ten, uh, years, um, since I first arrived in Lewiston. I'd never been here before.
Um, but, uh, a good buddy of mine, his name was Zach, um, I knew he was up here serving in Lewiston and I was working as electrician at the time. And God, God just gave me this unsettledness um, where I was at and gave me a lot of peace, um, that he was sending me somewhere. When I talked to Zach about what was happening up here, God just made it really clear that I was going to Lewiston, a place I'd never been before, um, never heard much about. But my church in Pennsylvania has a program where you can move up into Lewiston and volunteer at the root cellar for a year. And, uh, church covers your housing, your food. I mean, you just get to serve all year long. That, that year of serving Lewiston just really changed my perspective in so many ways. Growing up in Lancaster county, where 99% of people are Christians or at least heard the gospel were white.
Um, yeah. And then moving to. To Lewiston, Maine, where that's not the case and just so many things I took for granted were not here.
Um, and I just got to see God working in so many ways here and just fell in love with the diversity. The community, the kids and teens, adults here, um, are just so enjoyable.
Such, um, a pleasure to get to know so many people. And a year is a long time. But at the end of the year, just felt like the relationships were really just getting started.
Um, I wanted to just. At the end of that year, um, God made it clear again that I'm to, uh, move into Joel's basement and stay.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: Right. That's right. Yeah. Damon, he. Damon, you got to. It was. It was fun. It was a good time. When you lived in our basement, that's been. I mean, I was. It was kind of. It's something that's. I've reflected back on, like, the path that you've taken and, you know, you got another job somewhere else. And then ultimately kind of thought, uh, you know, let's come back to the root cellar if there's. There became an opening after Zach left, actually, and. And so it was an opportunity to bring you back on specifically for the summer.
Um, and it was really. You know, the thing I love about you, um, is just kind of the.
I think the. The ability to build relationship with anybody really is. Is something that I think you've just been really gifted with. And, um, and. And that just became a natural fit for the work that. That the retailer does. Um, you know, so you're. It's. You know, if it's interesting, just think about your. Your love for this city.
It's so far removed, Lewis, and so. So different than your background.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: And yet, you know, it's become. M. Lewis has become such a part of who you are at this point. You know, it's been kind of wild. Think about. It's been, it's been a decade, right? It's been 10 years.
[00:11:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So I had, uh, a lot less gray hair. I think you had a little bit more hair.
So, uh, it's been, it's. We're both kind of, you know, I'm older than you, but we're kind of growing up together. So. So it's been, it's been a wild ride.
So along the way we kind of stumbled into this program that has really become a kind of a hallmark or I think kind of a cornerstone of what the root seller does, specifically in Lewiston called Lukrew. And if you could maybe just kind of take us back a little bit. We already, we showed that video kind of, you know, what Lou Crew is and what we're, you know, get a feel for, you know, who we're serving, that sort of thing. But take us back. What was the idea behind Lukrew? How, how did that really start?
[00:12:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I think the genesis predated my start of uh, being full time here. But if I remember correctly, Zach wanted to just get a group of teens to, to do some work around the city and just teach teens how to work. So that was getting some lawnmowers, finding some, some yards that had grass up to their hip, and start making the city look a little cleaner.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:35] Speaker C: And we just noticed that teens love working, um, but needed a lot of direction. And that kind of morphed into what other, what other things can we teach these young kids what to do and how to do it? Well, um, that kind of developed into what Lou Crew is now where we can offer a, uh, lot of different work opportunities and alongside that, teach them financial literacy, teach them how to fill out an application, how to do an interview, um, all the things that are needed for their future.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really become this really well rounded, um, um, mentoring program, kind of mentoring for all of life. Um, you know, and uh, um, I, you go back a little further. You know, we had the traditional, like, youth programming at the root cellar was this, this teen center. And that goes all the way back to 1984. Like, that's how we started just this, this teen center location in the basement of the church in Portland and literally, uh, in the root cellar. And, and it's a great idea kind of getting, giving kids an opportunity to do something productive or fun, um, something that's safe, you know, something that's not going to be a, ah, problem for them, but a kind of a Positive environment.
And um, and we were still doing that. This is going back 2012 or so. And uh, and so we, as we kept doing that, we realized that like, you know, we wanted to do more. We wanted to offer more than just uh, a fun place. And it was also kind of hard to keep up with. Like, what is fun? You know, like, you know, you can't just like throw a foosball table or and a ping pong table in there and like call it fun. First of all, they're going to break those things at some point, so you have to replace them constantly. So secondly, it's, it's, you know, it's, you can't just, you can't keep up with the trendy fun stuff. So we realized it wasn't the trendy, fun activities that teens actually wanted. It was like they wanted community and connection and they wanted to be a part of something. And I, uh, remember the conversation with Zach went along the lines of like, you know, what if we could create a job for a team? Like the thing they want, they want, they say they want money, but they, they can't handle money. You know, so how do we, what if we could give them opportunity to earn money? What would that look like? And we came up with the, you know, not so novel idea of mowing some lawns. So, uh, we got a small grant from a local organization called Healthy Neighborhoods. And we're able to, you know, just try our. Try out, try it out for the first time one summer. And that was kind of the birth of this program. Um, I think we did maybe 20 properties that summer.
Um, and uh, and it's kind of just, it started there, but it's just grown every year into something, uh, pretty remarkable. Um, you know, so what today, you know, this, we're into summer, but this is now a year round program.
What does Lou Crew look like today?
You know, we started off with like five teens and a lot and a few lawnmowers. You know, what are we, what are we doing now?
[00:15:23] Speaker C: Yeah, so kind of the core principles of Loo Crew is work, play, grow and gather together. So for the work we have, we still have the lawn care business. We're up to 35 properties now that the teens help maintain. We have after school mentoring. So we, we hire our teens to be mentors to the younger kids in our program.
We have Common Grounds Cafe. In the summer they get to learn food, uh, service, customer service, how to properly handle food and serve guests.
Um, and then we also hire them to be teachers. Um, a lot of them have gone through the process of learning a new language. And so they have the tools to learn and we get to empower them and to pay them to be teachers to the adults in our community that are wanting to learn English. So as teachers, as, uh, CAFE workers, lawn care workers, and mentors. So kind of a wide range of opportunities for these teens to really find dignity in work.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: M. Yeah, um, dignity and work is something that I. I know you talk a lot about in, uh, the program and then kind of out of the program. Like, what is that? Talk a little bit more about that. What's the significance of that for you? And how's. How's it kind of translate to lucar.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: Yeah, there's just when.
So leading the lawn care program specifically, just seeing their satisfaction of working hard and getting to a property and being able to transform it into something beautiful. They love that. They love getting to serve guests. And there's something empowering for them to be in a position to get to serve others, um, and get to see their hands transform either a property or transform someone's day. You just see their faces light up when they get these opportunities to serve their community in these ways.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's so good. It's well said. You know, I. I kind of. There's this basic idea out there of like, you know, the teens of the Tree Streets neighborhood, the teens of Lewiston. You know, there's this perspective, obviously the neighborhood that we serve, that it's this crime riddled location. And there's like, yeah, there's crime, there's a violent. Some violent crime happening lately that's highly concerning, um, to all of us. Um, but, you know, there's this idea that the teens are somehow the.
One of the problems with the downtown. And I love how Lou Crew kind of like interrupts that entirely.
[00:17:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: What do you see? Yeah, what do you see from our teens? How would you respond to that?
[00:17:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say that's it's the opposite, that they are the future of our community. And I would say the future is bright, um, because the kids are so resilient. Yes, they're surrounded by some violence, but they, they're focused, they're driven, they have goals. We have electives where they get to, um, share their goals. And we have kids that want to be doctors, lawyers, mechanics. They want to have a positive impact wherever they are. Selfishly, I hope they stay in Lewiston because I think Lewiston truly will be a better place because of the teens that are here and their work ethic, their integrity, their Perseverance. They've been through so much in such a short period of time.
Um, and yet they, they still have this heart to, to serve those around them that I.
I'm daily inspired by. So anyone that. I would say, anyone that thinks teens are, Are the problem in our community, they don't know. They don't truly know and interact with the majority of the teens in our community.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Um, could you talk a little bit about, like, where our teens are from?
Where are, where are these teams from? And how has it changed over the years too?
[00:19:11] Speaker C: Yeah, so when I, When I first got here, um, it was like 99% teens, uh, and kids from Somalia. And over the course of the years, um, we're now seeing a lot of teens from Congo, Angola.
Um, they've spent quite a few years in Brazil.
Um, yeah. Burundi.
Um, and how do they get the roof seller? We're located perfectly, the high school, middle school. We're right in the middle between from where they live to the school. So kids will just walk by. We'll have a sign out saying applications now available.
A lot of them will have friends that come and say, like, their friends will be like, dude, you gotta come work here. It's awesome.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: Yeah. This past year, I think we. Our numbers were mid-80s. Something like 85 or 86 different teams participated in Lou Crew. And, uh, not all at one time. You know, where we normally we. In the summertime, we ramp that up. It gets close to 40. I think about half of them would be represented during the summer programming. But it's, it's really such a deep investment and, you know, and we've been able to scale it with these different work opportunities. You know, you were able to introduce Common Grounds Cafe as a new work experience that's kind of like your own personal flavor that you added to it. Could you talk a little bit about what the. What was that process like? Um, and, and how did it, how did it come to be?
[00:20:36] Speaker C: Like, lawn care is great, but it only can happen while the grass is.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: Growing, which is like, that's like, you know, three and a half weeks in May.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: Yeah. So just desiring like another opportunity for the kids to work during the winter and kind of brought it to them. Ask them if they, like, what ideas do you guys have for work that can happen all year round? Um, one of the teens had the idea for Cafe.
So many teens just see the need to serve the homeless community and they have a huge heart for that and want those people to have a safe place to be, have food to Eat. Um, so that was like, the primary motivation for them was like, how can we serve that population? So born out of that was this cafe idea where anyone can come, have a safe place to be, have, ah, some good food in their stomach, have good coffee. And along with that, we get to train the team's customer service, food prep, and how to work together as a team, how to listen to a manager supervisor. And then as it's grown, we've actually been able to hire teens as managers of the cafe. Um, so that's been really cool to see teens really thrive in that environment and really seek that leadership position.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Ah, that's been really, really. They have so much ownership of that space.
Um, you know, I remember coming in a couple times and just like, I'm walking into the kitchen and I'm not on the cafe staff. They were like, no, you can't be in here. Paper on, you don't have the hair net on, you know, you know, you're not in the right spot. I was like, okay, all right, fair enough.
[00:22:11] Speaker C: Sorry.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: And, um, you know, they're. They, they are just, uh, they've done a. You guys have done a phenomenal job of engaging them in the responsibilities of this. Um. One of the impacts of Common Grounds is that you get this combination of people that are present in the same space. It's diversity of those who are unhoused and those who. And then, uh, you know, representation of the immigrant community, specifically in our teens, the Path Forward participants, almost all immigrants are part of our. Part of the Common Ground staff now as well. What's that like?
[00:22:42] Speaker C: It's beautiful. And they're just becoming friends. Like they're learning each other's name. They're asking each other, like, how was your last week? How are you doing today? And just a lot of gratitude from both sides. Gratitude for being able to get to serve and gratitude for being served.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: With the demographic kind of change in our community over the years in terms of who we're serving. We talked about this earlier. You know, we were serving primarily Somali, uh, Muslim families and teens. And then now, uh, a, uh, really broad diversity. Most of them from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Angola. There's other nations as well, but most of them would identify as Christian. So there's this opportunity to kind of encourage one another in our faith. The root cellar with our faith, the faith of our team, and then theirs as well. You know, what, what have you observed? Like, how is God at work in those moments? And what's it look like?
[00:23:35] Speaker C: Yeah, um, it's just been super encouraging for me to just see kids at such a young age really wanting to live out their faith, um, and really wanting to know like, what, what does God have for me? So just being able to like come alongside and, and just share what I, what I've learned, what I've experienced in walking with God. And like practically how this has played out is we've had a lot of teens that wanted to just know more about the Bible and what it says. And so we started having weekly Bible studies. My wife and I, we just have teens over to our, our house, have a, share a meal together and then just open up the Word and read it. And they have questions, we have questions, we talk about it. And that's just led to like really beautiful discipleship. Um, there's one tea in particular I've, I've just seen such growth first started coming. He just had so many questions, so many doubts he would have.
Yeah, he was just a lot of exploration and God has just been doing such good things in his life. Just seeing the fruit of his willingness to share what Jesus has done for him, um, has started transforming other teens lives. So it's just been really neat to see God working in and through, uh, the teens here at the root cellar.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been this wild experience where you know, we, I think in the past we'd wondered, you know, what, how in the world do you do this and, and how do we engage with other people and with faith? And then all of a sudden we've got, we're kind of surrounded by people who like, that's just part of their lives. And the teens are looking for that community, to be a part of that space, to like you said, limp at their, live their faith out. And the root cell has kind of become that safe space for them to, to speak, to talk about their faith, to ask those questions to, to be part of, uh, of a Christian community. You know the, that look you mentioned, the Jesus parties that happen weekly. There's uh, we've offered multiple electives around that where they can learn more healthy relationships. You know, what does relationships look like between men and women? Um, what ah, does it mean to be a man? Was it mean to be a woman? Uh, ah, you know, there's, there's a lot that we end up discussing with them where it's uh, it's giving them a space to live out what they believe to be true. And it's, and it's really just been this, I think, really refreshing and beautiful thing. Um, and um, so could. Could you tell. You know, what do you wish that people knew about our, um, about our teens, just in general. What do you. What's. If there's, like, one takeaway, you know, you want people to kind of end with, uh, you know, about this, you know, what do you wish people knew?
[00:26:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we touched on it a bit earlier just how there's this perception of the youth in our city of being violent. My experience, I'm here in the downtown every day. Um, and every. Every teen I meet is they just have such a heart for those surrounded by them, such a heart for their friends, A desire to learn and grow and really contribute wherever they are, whether that's in an elective class or mowing lawns or in their classrooms. They want to have a positive impact. They want to see the world be a better place. We asked them in their interviews, like, what's your biggest desire in life? Or something like that. And so many of the answers are just like, I want to see the world be a better place, or I want to see, like, there's hungry, not be hungry. So just.
Our teens are resilient. They have hearts that just want to love and care for those around them, and they have huge aspirations for, uh, their futures. And it's just such a joy to just be one piece to get them further along towards where they want to end up.
Yeah, it's awesome.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: What's next for Lukerew? You want to tease out a few things for us?
[00:27:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: What's going.
[00:27:36] Speaker C: What's, um, there's. This summer.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: Hold on. Better question, Damon, what do you have brewing for class?
[00:27:45] Speaker C: It's a roasting class where all class long, we're just gonna figure out how can we roast Joel the best?
[00:27:53] Speaker A: No, we, uh, invite my daughters to that one. They'll enjoy it.
[00:28:01] Speaker C: Last summer, we. We started up what we're doing again this summer. We're going to be teaching the teens how to roast coffee, working with a local coffee roaster, and they came up with their own branding and name themselves. It's, uh, called Afro Beans. They. They choose coffee beans from countries where a lot of them are from. This year, it's got a bean in from Burundi, and I did a little sample roast on it, and it's delicious.
So wicked good.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: It's wicked good. It's really good. Uh, I really impressed.
[00:28:30] Speaker C: Yeah. Be on the lookout for some Afro beans. You can taste and enjoy coffee roasted by our Lou routines in, uh, in.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: Lewiston's only and best coffee roaster, which. Which is this, uh, this podcast sponsored by Krause House Coffee Roasters, Lewiston's only and best coffee roasters. I am a subscriber to. To Krause House Coffee as well. So, Damon, Damon Kraus is 50% of Kraus house. We also employ the other 50% of Krause house. Vicky, his wife, our admin coordinator, uh, at the Root Cellar. And we're. We're really blessed by that in so many ways. Not just with. With really great coffee, but this. Just this willingness to share a passion that you have with the teens, something that they. They are interested in. You know, this started, you know, really with common grounds. And then we thought about, you know, which was just like coffee and community and then came around and, you know, how do you combine those things, Your personal passion, the side business of Krause House Coffee with, uh, with L Crew, and, uh, Afro Beans was developed and it's. It is delicious. This is a tease. It's not available yet. It will be in the near future. We'll have Damon, uh, back on with one of our teens, at least one, maybe a few, to talk about Kraus House Coffee. I'm sorry, talk about Afro Beans, which will be roasted in conjunction in partnership with Crow House. Uh, and it's, uh, it's. It's gonna be. It's gonna be really fun. I'm excited for everybody to get a taste of that and, uh, get. Get an opportunity to experience it. So. So, Damon, thank you so much for your time.
[00:29:54] Speaker C: Thank you, Joel.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: We are.
Yeah, we're real. I'm. I'm blessed to work with you. The city of Lewiston, the root seller. Our teens are really just. I. I know. Blessed to have you in the position you're in.
[00:30:06] Speaker C: It's crazy. We talk so much about L Crew, but it feels like we. We barely even covered any of it. Yeah.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: Yeah. There's so much. There's so much to talk about.
There's more to learn. If you'd like to get involved with this program, uh, you can reach out to Damon directly. Damon, the rootseller.org if you'd like to volunteer, if you really enjoy hanging out with the coolest teens you're ever going to meet, um, we would. We'd welcome you to become one of our mentors. Um, we'd also. You could also learn more about the
[email protected] Lucrew and Damon, one last thing. You know, there's. We have experienced, you know, kind of a. A not a drop in funding in general, but what. What we've experienced is Kind of like, uh, it's gotten more competitive, both on the grant side of things. And I know more organizations are looking for more funding from other people. And, you know, this. This program just invests so much in teens. Could you talk just really briefly? You know, what's the impact that you've seen on a teen's life with this program? And, like, why should someone support it?
[00:31:08] Speaker C: Yeah, like, I don't know of a program more impactful.
Like, I firsthand, um, have just seen, um, this. Teens who come here to the root cellar have zero job skills.
Like, don't know how to talk to a supervisor, don't know how to show up on time. Um, in a year's time, um, they. They're ready. They're. They're being hired and keeping jobs. So just the impact that Lukrew has on teens, not. Not just in their work development, like, getting them prepared, but teens that had no social connections, didn't feel like they belonged anywhere because of Lukru. They have an extended family. And so just the impact that it has, um, to just bring up their spirits and to prepare them to have a great career going forward. Lou Crew just impacts every area of life when they're here.
Like, the rue seller talks about social, economic, spiritual wholeness. And personally, I believe, like, Lou Crew does that so well. I don't want any other coordinators saying, oh, but I think Lou Crew might do it the best. I said it.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: I like it. Um, I, like.
Absolutely lives up the mission and fulfills it in so many ways. And, um, it's. It's a beautiful thing. It's something that I really. I want to see us scale it up. M. Not only in Lewiston, but create a Portland version of this. And I can't be more excited about the future for this program specifically. So.
[00:32:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: Yeah. But we. We will have. Have you back and talk about it more. Thank you, David.
[00:32:49] Speaker C: Thanks, John.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Root Cellar podcast.
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[email protected] uh, farther along, um, understand why.
So cheer up, my brothers.
[00:33:35] Speaker C: Live in the song.
