MEADVILLE — BLOOMING VALLEY — When 18-year-old Shelly began working at VisionQuest’s Lee Prep Academy a few months ago, he soon began to get a better idea about some things he’d been missing: earning respect, earning trust ... and earning money.

Thanks to Lee Prep, Shelly, who asked that his last name not be included in this story, said he found himself acting “more like an adult” and was no longer being “treated like a criminal.”

Lee Prep is a workshop at the local VisionQuest facility, and it specializes in crafting its trademark TurnAround signs and products — graphic signs and wood products made by some of the young men who reside at VQ.

VisionQuest is a carefully monitored nationwide program for at-risk youth. It offers innovative intervention services, with guidance from a professional staff that urge high standards from the youth placed in their care.

Locally, Lee Prep has become a key part of that formula.

Shelly’s from Philadelphia and has been bouncing through the court system in recent years. His misdemeanor-level activities eventually landed him in VisionQuest, where a judge was hoping the young man would find a better way.

“A lot of these kids have been in the system for a while, and this is a hands-on facility that’s giving a good benefit (to them),” said Don Herman, a retired Meadville postal employee who’s been helping guide Lee Prep’s activities.

Inside the shop, the group works on any number of carpentry-style projects, such as assembling or fixing rugged, heavy-frame furniture, including picnic tables; and making items such as custom-built signs and hardwood cutting boards.

One current project has the young men refurbishing picnic tables for all of Playland Campgrounds’ campsites. And there are other orders coming both locally and from across the country. Via the internet, wood signs have been requested from distributors in Brooklyn, N.Y., and in Colorado in recent weeks.

The signs, for example, are requested because of their unique content, such as “maximum occupancy 49” or specific color combinations, said Herman, who notes they’re specialized items that can’t be found in stores.



Money adds up

While the work is an educational experience on any number of skill levels, perhaps its biggest real-life lesson is “payday.” The workers’ timesheets are carefully logged, and by accessing Excel spreadsheets they can see how much “money in pocket” they will be receiving when their stay with VisionQuest is complete.

When Shelly moves out later this spring or early summer, for example, he’ll receive a lump sum of minimum-wage earnings to help him get started on his next phase of living and learning.

And the new skills might also offer him a better start. The work at Lee Prep is diverse, with duties possible in carpentry, wood-finishing, marketing, scheduling and warehousing, among others. A food services enterprise is also available to prepare students in the culinary field. And leadership and management experience is also possible.

A little over two years old, the local VisionQuest program is housed at the former StoRox site, a sprawling facility in a rural setting about seven miles northeast of Meadville. It was developed more than four decades ago by Pittsburgh-area owners interested primarily in outdoor recreation choices. Just outside of Blooming Valley, and not far from Guys Mills, it is surrounded by fields and has a large lodge and a couple of other main buildings. Until recently, it was used for such events as a football training camp, wedding receptions, reunion gatherings and family parties.

The site was more or less idle in recent years when VisionQuest moved in. After a couple of years of leasing the facility, ownership changed hands a few months ago — VisionQuest now owns it.

It’s situated inside the boundaries of PENNCREST School District, which takes educational materials to the VisionQuest students for use throughout the school year.

With a staff of about 15 instructors and other employees, the local VisionQuest has a capacity to house 32 young men. Currently there are 31, said Herman, whose been on board for about one year. About 10 of the youth work at Lee Prep’s TurnAround shop in shifts of four employees each.



Changing lives

The shop’s name is part of the message for Herman, who said he’s seen young people turning their lives around. Considered to be on lower levels of rehabilitation, based on poor attitude and other problems, “a lot of these kids are simply bored or in need of diploma” when they wind up at VisionQuest. But with programs like the ones at TurnAround Signs and TurnAround Products, “they’re getting a fresh start, and they can use funds to pay for a GED (general education development diploma). And some are even beginning jobs offsite” in Crawford County while being housed at VisionQuest

“We try to taylor things to them, if positions are available,” Herman said.

And he’s seeing some success stories unfolding — seeing boredom and bad attitudes chased away by a new-found desire to start living more productive lives.



What is VisionQuest?

For nearly 35 years, VisionQuest has been leading to help change a “problem child” to one of promise, the organization’s website says.

Across the United States, VisionQuest residential and community-based programs are transforming troubled lives, working with young people who pose tough challenges for their families, their schools and their communities. The adolescents defy parental rules, engage in risky behaviors, exhibit significant mental health problems, or have committed delinquent acts.

VisionQuest seeks to reach kids in ways that are both practical and profound by nurturing a young person’s spirit and soul, using “innovative treatment methods that open kid’s eyes — first to engage them, and then to help them discover new possibilities for life. It’s the path to a new start,” the website says.

In Crawford County, a VisionQuest facility is near Blooming Valley, about seven miles northeast of Meadville, with a staff of 15 instructors and other staff helping a youth population. With a capacity of 32, currently 31 young people reside there.



Ed Mailliard can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at ed@meadvilletribune.com.