Over the past five years I have met more than 2,000 teenagers in School District # 68 and I've concluded that only a very few are "challenging", many are brilliant and most are simply good, solid, everyday citizens like you and me.

There's also no doubt that more of today's young people are involved with illegal drugs, especially marijuana, than people who grew up during the nineteen fifties for instance. Does that mean that teenagers back then were "better" somehow? Or could it be that marijuana simply wasn't available to the average student back then?

I was part of the teenage "in crowd" in Ottawa during the later part of that period and, other than alcohol, the only drug use I heard about was those teens who mixed aspirins and Coca Cola. Wow! What a buzz...Not!

Do you think most of those kids would have tried other drugs had they been available? I think so. And another question, how many people drank alcohol during the prohibition period? That was an illegal drug at the time wasn't it? And that generation turned out pretty well didn't it?

By the way, how many of you who are now in your fifties and sixties ever drove drunk? Talk about dangerous behaviour. There's no doubt about it. Those teenagers were totally out of control, right?

Bottom line, today's teenagers are pretty much like we were. So why do so many adults think they're to be feared? Why do they get so much negative press even though the vast majority are doing just fine and a significant percentage deserve to be admired and acknowledged for their achievements?

Whatever the reason I believe the negative image this age group has been tarred with is unjustified so, as I mentioned last week, I want to focus the majority of these columns over the next few months on our Mid Island youth.

I believe you will enjoy meeting these young people and, in the process, I hope that those of you who have had a negative opinion about teenagers in general will be open to changing your beliefs.

Since I committing myself last week to begin focusing on teenage Neighbourhood Heroes, I have met a number of young people I want to write about. They're not hard to find. But before we begin to meet them, let me tell you about a dozen or so young people I met last weekend.

When I turned up at the Fifth Street Boys and Girls Club on Saturday to help paint a very large play room and a classroom full of pre school furniture, I was amazed to see ten full and part time staff members, all but two in their teens and early twenties, already busy at work ... busy working but not being paid. They had volunteered to spend the day painting to help provide a better environment for their kids.

When I arrived, the room was buzzing with energy and although everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, they all remained focused. There was a job to be done and they were committed to getting it done.

Before and after pictures wouldn't do justice to what was accomplished on that day but I suspect the majority of children and parents who arrived on Monday morning must have thought they had gone to the wrong place. The difference was dramatic.

Special thanks also to the six people from the Pursuit of Excellence program (Bruce Adkins, Ann Hanson, Tim Davidson, Jim Pickell, James Dunn and Kathy Anderson) who also volunteered their support that day. I suspect they enjoyed meeting these young Boys and Girls Club staff members as much as I did.