WAITSBURG – From pumpkin producers to pool plungers, Rural Youth Enrichment Services (RYES) is intent on giving local kids a helping hand.

RYES is a nonprofit organization, founded in 2009, with the goal of providing a wide variety of activities to youth of all ages, with a primary emphasis on entrepreneurial activities, self-sustaining gardening, green technologies, and bringing arts and music into the community.

"The original view was that we would provide the programs ourselves, but that has morphed as we realized that you burn people out. Now we're letting people come to us," said R...