By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
A summer gig at Six Flags amusement park.
“I like what I do here. It’s fun,” said Elijah Singletary.
It’s an opportunity Newark’s West Side High School student Singletary, might not have had without the help of the Urban League of Essex County.
“In a lot of urban communities the jobs are outside so having the transportation to get to those jobs is very important,” said Urban League of Essex County CEO and President Vivian Cox Fraser.
The league partnered with some big sponsors — PSE&G and the MCJ Amelior Foundation to name a few — to provide funding for just that. About 75 teens are taking advantage, bused daily to the park with chaperones at a cost of nearly $90,000.
“The buses pick them up in the morning and they pick them up in the evening, it is a very long day. Sometimes they don’t get back to West Side until 9 at night and they start out at 9 o’clock in the morning,” Fraser said.
“It benefits money wise because we don’t have to spend as much out of our paychecks just to get here,” Singletary said.
It also provides work readiness skills. Singletary is in the food service department at Six Flags — hardly a slow moment there.
“Well we all go through the same thing, difficult customers, sometimes you know just different orders from supervisors you might not like it, but you have to deal with it. You work with so many people,” he said.
“So they’re learning really valuable skills around adaptability, customer service, working with people from around the world that are here,” Fraser said.
“We do encourage a lot of responsibility. We have a lot of strict policies including grooming and attendance policies that they do have to follow, so you know they have learned a lot of responsibility working for us. I think it is a lot of hard work but they’ve also had a lot of fun,” said Six Flags Great Adventure Recruitment Supervisor Lisa Bruce.
Six Flags is the largest seasonal employer in the state, and the largest overall in Ocean County. They had nearly 3,000 jobs to fill. Most of the West Side High students went into food service or ride operations.
“I think it’s really good because not a lot of people get public transportation here. The public transit costs a lot of money which is a big problem for everybody else but a bus that can take you over there for free, that’s really good,” said Christopher Greer, an employee of Six Flags Great Adventure.
“Getting a first job is so important for young people, for them to learn the value of work, the value of an opportunity and certainly coming down having to travel so far really is a valuable lesson for young people as well,” Fraser said.
The league is planning to expand the program — more employers, more high schools — but this one is going to be pretty tough to beat. Where else would you want to work on a hot summer day?