Hard work pays.

At the end of the summer, 17-year-old Michael Brown will have about $800 he can use to buy clothes and other incidentals for school. It’s money he’s earned by walking in the heat along main thoroughfares cleaning Vicksburg as an employee of the city’s summer youth program.

Michael, along with about 25 others, works five hours, five days a week for the community service department. About 20 other teens are employed in various departments to help with different projects.

“The purpose was to introduce the idea of employment to youths. They have to fill out an application, have an interview – we treat them like any other employee,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens, who began the program in 2002. “We see a lot of respect from these kids. Everything is hard work.”

For 17-year-old Danielle White, the daughter of Curby and Jenophia Truitt, picking up trash along city streets is her first job. But, to her, even though she’s up at 7 a.m. and works until noon each day, it’s more than just a job.

“I don’t really like picking up paper, but it’s time I get to spend with friends,” she said. “And, I like the pay.”

It’s also the exercise. The teens know they wouldn’t be getting it if they were sitting at home.

“I’d just be getting up at 12,” said Michael, the son of Michael Brown and Ethel Cook.

Robert Hubbard, director of community service, who has been involved with the program since it began, said having a summer job teaches young people how to manage money as well as the importance of their responsibility to their community.

“A lot of times, it gives them their first opportunity to get out of the house and actually punch a clock and go to work,” he said. “They also learn not to throw paper out the window because they’re the ones picking it up.”

Danielle said she often rides by areas she’s cleaned with a sense of pride.

“I’m like, ‘I picked up paper there,'” she said.

Vonnae Simmons, 17, the daughter of Yvonne Simmons, is actually working two jobs this summer. In addition to her employment with the city, she works part time at Carter’s at the Outlets at Vicksburg. She and Danielle, who both have parents who are city employees and are friends, decided they would take on the job with the city together.

“It’s fun being with friends,” Vonnae said.

At one time, Vicksburg had one of the largest summer youth programs in the state, Leyens said. High gasoline prices, which caused officials to cut a portion of the city budget in order to make up the difference in fuel costs for city departments, has forced the city to scale back the number of employees this summer.

“Because of the budget and increased gas prices, we weren’t able to hire as many,” Hubbard said. “But we still think it’s important to have as many as we can.”

In addition to picking up litter, the young employees have, in the past, worked at the cemetery, placing and painting markers, and at the Vicksburg Convention Center, where they have painted parking stripes and set out sod, Hubbard said.

He said part of the program’s success is the fact that a large number of employees return for a second or third year of summer employment. The program is open to any youth 16 and older who is enrolled in school. They are paid on a sliding scale, where their wage depends on the number of years they have been employed, said Lamar Horton, director of human resources for the city. The eight-week program teaches a work ethic Hubbard said benefits both the employees and the city.

“They don’t spend their parents’ money as fast because they realize they have to work for it. Money really doesn’t grow on trees,” he said. “And, they realize cleanliness is as important to the city as it is anywhere else. This is our home. We can draw more investors and more people if we have a good place.”

The program is but one example of Leyens’ ongoing effort to keep Vicksburg looking shipshape.

“It’s an important program. They take interest in the community and see things they wouldn’t normally see,” he said.