Weed and Seed program in search of lawn mowers

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown North Side Weed and Seed is in search of lawn mowers to provide youth of the city with the equipment to potentially start their own jobs.

Weed and Seed is a federally funded grant program that aims to weed out crime and seed in social programs and services to restore local neighborhoods. Youngstown State University assists the program.

This summer, it will be offering lawn mower maintenance sessions to at least 10 youths from the North Side.

“If we get more than 10 kids, no one will be turned away,” said Rick George, associate director of the Center for Human Service Development at YSU.

Educational sessions will start as soon as Weed and Seed has lawn mowers, which it hopes will be donated by local residents and businesses. Any mower will do — and they are also accepting mower parts.

Participating youth will be recommended by community block watch groups, churches and council members.

“Kids need people to show them things,” said George. “If you show them what to do, they’ll do it.”

With this program, George hopes to give area youth the knowledge and tools to start cutting grass as a job and as a way to clean up their neighborhood.

Youngstown North Side Weed and Seed is in its second year of working with youth and will offer other programs this summer.

It will have a drug and alcohol training event with PANDA (Prevent and Neutralize Drug and Alcohol Abuse), and etiquette classes to teach kids how to respect one another and the appropriate way to act in certain situations, said George.

For more information on Weed and Seed or about donating a mower, call (330) 744-9011.