Inspiration comes in all colors. In John Poe’s case, it’s electric green. 

John, 18, of Tyner, KY, is one of eight young people employed this summer at Flat Lick Falls in Jackson County through the “Let’s Go 2 Work” initiative. And he seems to have found his niche.

John’s work duties have included helping to create trails and maintain the natural beauty of Flat Lick Falls, a local scenic area that Jackson County officials hope may become a state park one day. But for John, the most exciting part of his summer work experience is the design he created for a generator dam that would provide power to light the park’s trails and a planned cabin.

The dam would provide “green” electricity by using a stream that flows through the property as natural power source, thus avoiding the need for running intrusive power lines into the wilderness area.

John smiles shyly as he explains how he likes to “design and create things.”

“I didn’t have video games growing up so when I was a kid I would chop down trees and build little dams or bridges to cross creeks.”

John’s design would take the energy of the water flow and use it to turn a generator that would produce electricity. The water flow would be regulated through a series of tunnels built into the dam, each of which would channel water through a turbine. Each turning turbine would rotate a shaft attached to an electrical generator.

Mary Hayes, property overseer, hopes to see John’s ingenuity implemented soon at Flat Lick Falls. She and John are meeting with local officials soon to discuss funding that might be available for the generator dam project.

Once labeled a problem child, John has suffered a few hard knocks in life and has never been very interested in school or extracurricular activities. The Jackson County High School Senior has never worked with or formally studied electricity or parks, but he seems to have a natural understanding of them.

“I think John is wonderful, bright, really smart, comes up with good ideas, and is a good worker,” Hayes said. “When he participates in this, he is participating in his community.”

John Tompkins, a worksite supervisor for Let’s Go 2 Work, also praised John’s initiative and work ethic as uncommon. In fact, he said he couldn’t believe the quality of worker he got when John was placed on the job through Let’s Go 2 Work.

Let’s Go 2 Work—an initiative of the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP)—is putting 3,000 young people ages 16 to 24 to work in temporary jobs this summer across 23 eastern Kentucky counties. The young workers’ wages are being paid through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In Jackson and Clay counties, Let’s Go 2 Work is provided by the Daniel Boone Community Action Agency, under contract with EKCEP.

From John’s first day on the job, he was full of ideas, according to Tompkins.

“He was just coming up with so much stuff I gave him a notebook and told him to write it down,” Tompkins said.

A peek in John’s notebook reveals a scaled sketch of the generator dam, including current flow, wheelies, and generator positioning.

“I was just trying to come up with a way to get power and make money for the would-be park,” John said. “Somebody said they had seen one before so I thought why can’t we do it here?”

“We can use the rocks from the creek bed and make it a rock dam, so there would not be so much money involved,” John said.

He hopes the “nature friendly” power supply will make Hayes happy, knowing that more of the pristine beauty of the her family’s land will be preserved.

“We plan to restore a cabin that has burned in the area and John’s idea will make it possible to have power throughout the park without any big power lines and poles that are not natural to this area. We want to keep it as original as possible,” Hayes said.

Tompkins said, “John is very underrated and I think a lot of people are going to be surprised where he goes.”

For now, John is using his salary from Let’s Go 2 Work to pay bills and get on his feet, but he has decided designing and creating is something he is meant to do. He plans to pursue college and study drafting or engineering.

“I didn’t think I would ever go to college. I thought I would graduate high school and live a life like the rest of the area—except without the drugs,” John said.

Inspiration. plus the opportunity provided by Let’s Go 2 Work, has made a “powerful” change in one young man’s life.

For more information, visit the Web site at letsgo2work.org.