A job fair where most walked away happy

DENVER - The roughly 150 teenagers stood with their backs to the wall in the ballroom of the Crown Plaza Hotel dressed in their best outfits and anxious or nervous looks on their faces. They were not waiting for a dance partner in a summer prom, but instead a company executive to give them a job.

The summer youth employment program was sponsored by Goodwill Industries and paid for through funds from the Economic Recovery Act, otherwise known as the stimulus package. The young people would be paid through money distributed to the city of Denver to provide summer jobs and the companies gained access to talented young people at no cost.

"There are kids out there who are lazy, don't try, but other kids are out there that try so hard and it's hard for them," said 18-year-old Jonathan Bonner, who will study engineering at Metro State in the fall. "They work, work, work, and sometimes it never pays off, but this is just a golden opportunity."

Bonner earned a position as a Web designer intern at Illume Branding after interviewing with company executives.

"I'm very excited, a little nervous," he said afterward. "[Future employers] will look at my resume and say, 'Hey, this guy has experience with Web design and he's 18, 19 years old.'"

Another job seeker was 19-year-old Maya Richards, who had the opportunity to interview for a position with the Hispanic Scholarship Foundation. The sophomore student-athlete, who runs track at CSU-Pueblo, had been unable to find a job this summer in the down economy until Tuesday.

"I have to say it's been very, very, very hard getting a job this summer definitely," she said. "We all need a chance to go out there and get a job."

Colorado received more than $11 million to put young people up to age 24 to work this summer. Goodwill received the opportunity to administer this fair from the city of Denver's Office of Economic Development. Other county workforce centers throughout the state have also received money to distribute. The state was hoping to create roughly 3,000 jobs through the program.

"[The stimulus] is designed to have an immediate impact in terms of the number of people employed," said David Hicks, an executive with Illume Branding which hired five people including Bonner to work on Web design, marketing and interior design.

He was extremely impressed with the quality of young people who sat before him looking for work.

"I don't know how they screened these young people but every one of them has something that's not common," Hicks said.

For any kids who did not land positions at this fair, Goodwill officials say they will continue to work with them on finding a job before the end of summer. The money from the stimulus package for this program needs to be spent by the end of September.