Story and photos by Janette Turner

With an unemployment rate of 25.2 percent for high school students, finding a job may seem like winning the lotto. To help improve the odds, My Edmonds News has started The Work Project. First up, we are featuring Meadowdale High incoming senior Louie Herman, and his quest to get employment.

While Herman’s long-range dream is to become an emergency medical technician, he has realistic short-term goals. “I am looking for any sort of work,” said Herman recently, “preferably yard work or any open position at a restaurant or grocery store.”

Herman briefly summarized his working experience: “In the past I have done lawn and garden maintenance for my neighbors, house sat, and helped a family friend prepare his house to put on the market through landscaping, remodeling and general maintenance.”

In the fall, he will be a senior at Meadowdale High, while taking Running Start classes at Edmonds Community College.

If you know of yard work or another job for Herman, please contact us and we will get your info to him. Sounds like you can’t go wrong hiring Herman because he brings most of his own equipment and, as he says, “I am a punctual, hard worker, who is not afraid to get dirty.”

We will follow Herman’s progress throughout the summer and see if that unemployment rate shrinks. And, yes, he did get good advice from Capt. David Hunter and firefighter Joe Soucy of Edmonds Station 17 regarding the big dream. Herman is looking into the Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center for firefighter training, but if you want to hire a firefighter-to-be, now is your chance.