COUNTY — As Franklin County teenagers join the workforce this summer in the middle of the pandemic, they have to adopt conscientious practices to ensure the safety of their co-workers and customers as well as those in their households. 

Mt. Blue graduating senior Caitlin Underwood works 25 hours a week at the Farmington Walmart as an e-commerce shopper. Her job entails filling online grocery lists and delivering the order to the customer’s vehicle. The online grocery pick-up department that Underwood works at consists of about 12 workers, half of whom are teenagers.

Employees at Walmart are required to wear masks and Underwood has to wear gloves during cash and card transactions. She said that she feels nervous about contracting the coronavirus every day, especially now that vacationers are flocking to the area.

“We get lots of out of state cars pulling up which causes a little more anxiety because of quarantine,” Underwood said in a phone interview.

Underwood has nine other people in her household, several of whom are considered part of high-risk groups for the coronavirus. Her parents urged her to take Walmart’s two week self-quarantine offer when Gov. Janet Mills announced a state of emergency to ensure the safety of herself and her family.

When Underwood returned to Walmart, one of her co-workers had resigned because their parents were uncomfortable with their child working in a high-exposure environment.

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Livermore Falls teen Evan Dowe, 17 expressed less anxiety about working during the pandemic as he operates the first window of the McDonald’s drive-thru in Jay.

“Of course, you do have it in the back of your mind that someone could come through with coronavirus, but after taking a few orders and the usual flow goes, you just get into the rhythm of the work and just don’t think about it too much,” Dowe said in a phone interview.

Evan Dowe, 17, wears a mask during the entirety of his shifts at the McDonald’s in Jay. Photo courtesy of Evan Dowe.

Dowe’s household consists of his parents and his 16 year old brother who will return to Berry Fruit Farm for summer work after healing from an injury. The thought of contracting the coronavirus while at McDonald’s seems unlikely to Dowe. 

“We have a plastic shield between us and the customers. We can only reach our hand through the bottom, so I feel pretty safe in general because I also have a mask on, and I have hand sanitizer right next to me,” Dowe said.

In addition to these safety measures, Dowe’s mother asked her son to shower immediately when coming home and stressed that he needs to wash his hands constantly at work. Barbie Dowe still feels strongly about her son having a summer job during the pandemic, attributing his and her family’s good health as a reason not to fear contracting the virus. 

“We still need to make sure that we have extreme precautions for people who are at risk, but as for the rest of us healthy people, we need to get to work. That’s for sure,” Barbie Dowe said in a phone interview. “I want to get to work, I want our country to go back to normal.”

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Teenagers Alexa Newcomb and Chelsea Seabold work together at Wilson Stream Ice Cream Shop in Wilton where they now hand ice cream to customers with masks on behind a Plexiglas. 

“I originally was trying to find work on a farm because I thought that would be a safer option, but no farms that I got in contact with were hiring so I turned to other options,” Seabold said while standing behind glass canisters of stacked waffle cones.

Seabold also had to wait for her parents’ approval before she could accept any positions. 

“As the community started to have more natural adjustments to it, I think my parents were a little more accepting of me working in a public place,” she said. 

Newcomb and her family did not feel as hesitant about her working in food service during the pandemic, but she did say that the new safety practices have required some adjustments.

“It was different at first because of the Plexiglas and we weren’t wearing masks at first, but now we are and that’s been a struggle because it’s hard to talk,” Newcomb said in a muffled voice behind a purple mask. 

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Teenagers Alexa Newcomb, left and Chelsea Seabold work together at the Wilson Stream Ice Cream Shop in Wilton during the pandemic. Andrea Swiedom/Franklin Journal

The young workers have also had to deal with some customers who do not understand some of the ice cream shop’s new COVID-19 related precautions.

“We had some extreme negative responses from people to having their ice cream in a dish,” Seabold said with her eyes squinting from a smile beneath her bright yellow mask.

Both Newcomb and Seabold mentioned that they are practicing social distancing with their grandparents to prevent any potential spread to the high-risk age group now that they are working in the food industry and are in contact with new people everyday.

Mt. Blue High School junior Emily Willett is working for her second summer at The Ice Cream Shoppe on Wilton Road in Farmington. Although her family expressed some anxiety prior to her working during the pandemic, they felt comfortable with her returning to an employer that they trusted to maintain safe practices.

“I think they were definitely a little iffy about it at first, but my parents are pretty for me working, they like me having the responsibility to come here. But it’s worked out pretty good because it’s super safe here.”

Willett is also familiar with her co-workers and knows that they all practice social distancing outside of work, which eased her own anxieties about working over the summer.

“It definitely felt different than the first season because we have these new rules that we have to follow, but it was pretty easy to adjust because we all know what we’re doing,” Willett said while standing behind Plexiglas in the counter window. “We didn’t have any new help this year and I think we fell into it pretty good.”

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