THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 15, 1994 TAG: 9411150318
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 131 lines
The waitress asks all the usual questions.
``A bowl or a cup of soup, sir? Will this be one check or two? What kind of bread would you like in that sandwich?''
Regulars Joe Popp and Gary Ambrose know the drill. Like the servers who come to the table, they've memorized the specials. Today, for instance, it's the Carolina barbecue plate.
Earlier, employees busily mopped, counted money at the cash register, placed fresh flowers in vases at the tables for a new day within the blue-gray walls of Scoopers Restaurant at 1312 N. George Washington Highway.
But this is not your everyday eatery. The employees are youths who have committed nonviolent offenses such as drug crimes or theft, girls who have dropped out of school to have babies - kids who've run afoul of the juvenile justice system.
The staff at Scoopers shares a common background. They range in age from 16 to 21 and are disadvantaged economically. They do not have high school degrees. About 35 have been through the training since Scoopers opened in February.
Popp, an employee at nearby St. Julien's Creek Naval engineering command, has come to Scoopers since opening day, as often as three times a week.
``I think it's a great idea,'' he said. ``Everyone is a winner.''
The students, who serve between 100 and 150 lunches on a typical day, dress neatly in khaki pants, navy blue golf shirts, and wear visors and aprons that say ``Scoopers.''
Long before they come into contact with customers like Popp and Ambrose, they have practiced on one another and on program volunteers. Just in case, they role-play dealing with grouchy customers.
Scoopers was the dream of William M. Cuthriell, the volunteer coordinator for Chesapeake Volunteers in Youth Services Inc. a nonprofit organization that targets at-risk youth. He approached Tommy and Linda Rapier, two longtime restaurateurs, who came up with the plan for a casual restaurant offering soups, salads and sandwiches, ice cream and frozen yogurt patterned after an ice cream chain called Friendly's.
The idea has worked so well that Cuthriell has gotten phone calls from across the country from people who want to emulate the success. Phoenix and Baltimore now have similar programs.
Scoopers has been so successful the hours will expand from lunch only to include breakfast next year. Although the program continues to get referrals from juvenile court, others come because friends have recommended the program as a way to make money and get job experience.
Participants take 40 hours of life-skills classes to learn about self-esteem and postive attitudes before coming to the restaurant to train for three months. They study to be cooks, to wait on tables and to do everything in between. They earn GEDs. Then they take their new skills and find jobs.
The students learn the restaurant business top to bottom from the Rapiers, who operated the Brentwood Restaurant at the same site until it burned in December 1991. The Rapiers currently run Sunset Manor, a family restaurant also in Chesapeake.
Each employee at Scoopers has a story to tell - a story of hope, of wrestling with adversity and winning.
For 17-year-old Machelle Hoggard of Portsmouth, the saga includes dropping out of school in eighth grade, being kicked out of the National Honor Society, having a baby.
It also includes her pledge: ``I said to myself in November 1993, if I don't graduate from high school, I will graduate from college.''
In January, she plans to start classes in drafting and design at Norfolk State University. Someday, she hopes to be a draftsman or an architect. Her boyfriend - the father of her child - was supposed to start college with her. They planned to get married in January.
A few weeks ago, he was murdered.
Linda Rapier, manager and surrogate mom, talks about the day she learned of the murder, about how she and Machelle hugged and cried together.
Rapier's love shows in her voice, in the tears she sheds for Machelle. Rapier cries for the girl who shows up at the restaurant with a smile on her face despite her sadness, her boyfriend's ring on a chain around her neck.
``When we first started this program, I had no idea I would get this close to these children,'' she said. ``I had no idea I'd feel this much emotion. We don't know what any of them has done, where they come from. We just know their names. It's like you're looking in the face of your own child.''
In the kitchen is Tyrone Foust, the cook, who started with the restaurant in February and will stay on as part of the staff. He too will go to Norfolk State next semester, studying engineering. He left Booker T. Washington High School in October 1993. By April 1994, he had his GED.
``It's taught me to be independent, to make my own money,'' said Foust, 18, who wears a white chef's hat as he talks. He is responsible for preparing the special of the day, for baking rolls and corn muffins and apple, chocolate and lemon meringue pies. ``The best thing is being able to work, meeting new people, being able to have something to do besides get in trouble.''
Christel Cross, 20, of Portsmouth, came to Scoopers after she was charged with disorderly conduct - charges that were later dismissed. She dropped out of high school in 1992 and again in 1993 to have babies and never graduated. Now she's earning her GED and planning on classes as a nurse's aide.
Shawn Somerville, now 18 and living in Norfolk, was on probation when she heard about Scoopers. She was hanging around with the wrong crowd and had been kicked out of high school and had a baby.
Now all she's waiting for are her GED test results before she starts classes at Tidewater Community College to become an early childhood worker.
``If I failed, they'll see me again because I'm going to keep going back until I get those points,'' she said.
In Scoopers, the Rapiers have combined their passion for the restaurant business with a love of children. They have four, ages 17 to 36.
``We've always thought that children are our greatest resource,'' Rapier said. ``These kids just need a chance. We need the public to understand that anybody can make a mistake.''
Rapier has great hopes for the program. She wants to see it expand from three months to six months. She wants to add a charm school and start a catering service.
``In our dreams, we'd like to see it go into every city in the United States,'' she said. ``Just think what it would do for our young people - what it would do for our tax dollar. We don't just teach them about the restaurant here. We teach them that people love them, care about them, want good things for them.'' MEMO: Scoopers is open from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
and is also available for banquets seven days a week. For information,
call the restaurant at 487-0611.
ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON/
Machelle Hoggard, 17, of Portsmouth waits for customers behind the
counter at Scoopers Restaurant in Chesapeake.
B&W photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON/
Lashelle Somerville, 19, waits on a table at Scoopers Restaurant as
part of a job-training program.
by CNB