Source: The News-Times, by Eileen FitzGerald
DANBURY — Seventeen-year-old Ehi Osagie doesn’t pretend to be an outdoorsman, but he’s proud of his work as part of a crew that helped build a bridge and clear brush for the Ives Trail this summer.
The Danbury High School graduate, bound for the University of Connecticut, said he appreciates nature a little bit more after six weeks in the woods with seven other teens.
For the first time, Mayor Mark Boughton’s Summer Teen Employment Program partnered with the Student Conservation Association.
The association trained two college students to oversee the project.
“It took a lot of hard work, a lot of heavy lifting of the brush,” said Alessandro DaSilva, a senior at Danbury High School in the fall, who worked in the mayor’s program for the second summer.
“I live on the other side of the hill,” he said pointing to the rise the trail takes. “I’ll definitely pass through here many times.” Continue Reading.
From left, Mike Dibble, 19; Ehi Osagie, 17 and Alessandro Da Silva, 17, talk about their work building a trail and a bridge on the Ives Trail section that runs through property near Long Ridge Road in Danbury, Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012. The boys were part of a crew under the direction of the Student Conservation Association and Myor Mark Boughton’s teen summer employment program. Photo: Carol Kaliff / The News-Times