Last week we ran a promotion offering all students in the county an opportunity to place a free classified ad seeking a job for the summer in the May 14 newspaper. We think this has the possibility of benefiting teens and their communities.

Entrepreneurship is the engine that drives economic growth in our communities, and a summer job mowing lawns or baby-sitting is a great way for teens to get experience running their own business, building their work ethic, and setting goals.

Growing up a couple hours north of here in Washington, Kan., I spent much of the summer mowing yards with my dad. It was hot, sweaty, tiring work, especially since I was the one running the push mower most of the time. The rewards were sweet, though. By the time I had my restricted driver’s license, I was ready to buy a car, debt free. It meant that I didn’t have to ask my parents to borrow one of their vehicles, something I was happy to avoid.

How does teens having summer jobs help the community at-large, though? Sticking with the mowing example, there have been several times that I wanted to find someone who could mow my lawn for me, either because my mower was broken down or because I just didn’t want to mow my lawn myself, either because I didn’t feel like I had the time or energy to do it.

Unless you have someone you turn to regularly for that kind of work, it can be difficult to find someone. There have been times when I spent more time asking around about who I could hire to mow my yard than it would have taken me to mow it myself. It would have been much easier if there were a section in the paper that I could clip out and stick on my refrigerator at the start of the summer with names and phone numbers of people in need of clients.

So for teenagers, think about what skills you could make a job out of and look for the form to fill out on page 10 of the paper. Everyone else, check the May 14 newspaper to find what business ideas our local teens have come up with.

— ADAM STEWART