Youth Developmental Enterprises

Youth Developmental Enterprises was a program that ran from AbOUT 1971 to 1993. The Primary activity of YDE was bringing teenage young men and slightly older supervisors to Hawaii to work in the pineapple fields of Lanai and Maui. YDE brought around 18,000 young men to Hawaii to accomplish this work, but the primary goal of the organization was not pineapple production, but rather building the character of these young men.

Founding of YDE

During the first two years the Pineapple picking program was a joint venture between the LDS Church and the Boy Scouts of America but when the requirement was made to get certified with the Federal Government they both asked Ross to organize an independent corporation. Ross Olsen was the founder and primary leader of YDE. Ross called this new corporation Youth Developmental Enterprises.

YDE Activities

The magazine Boomerang was published by YDE, and contained information about the boys participating in the program, and stories about it.

Maui Land and Pine hired YDE to bring the youth to work in the Pineapple Fields. YDE was certified and licensed by the United States Government as a Migrant Farm Labor Contractor.

YDE was heavily marketed through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) and the Boy Scouts of America and many of the boys who worked in this program were LDS. While in Hawaii, the young men were expected to live to standards similar to those of LDS missionaries. Hair was cut (at least once at the beginning of the summer), no girl friends, and other moral restrictions were required.

A few of the boys who worked there were sent by court order after getting into trouble, but the majority of the boys volunteered. The program could be participated in for 3, 6 or 9 months. All of these programs ended with a one week tour of Hawaii that toured several of the islands. This was the highlight of the experience for many of the participants at the time. However, the life long contributions were in teaching these young men to work hard.

Pineapple picking and planting were the primary activities, although mulching fields, cooking, cleaning and other activities were also done.

Tragedy befell YDE in the summer of 1980 when a young man named Mike Zufelt drowned while swimming near a shipwreck on the far side of the island.

Ending of YDE

The program ended when financial difficulties involving the relationship between YDE and Maui Pine put YDE out of business. One of the greatest expenses for YDE was air fare to Hawaii from the mainland. Airlines needed to be paid up front to get good volume discount rates, and these payments were made and were non-refundable. The last year of the program, Maui Pine did not renew their five year contract with YDE, leaving the organization in an untenable cash flow situation, and the Hawaii program terminated.

The following year various negotiations were begun to work for the LDS Church Farms in Florida picking tomatoes and oranges, some independent tomato growers in South Carolina and a tree planting effort in Mississippi. None of these programs really got off the ground and the entire program sadly ended.