Karen Gail Jostad, Star Tribune
Published August 30, 2003
HOUT30
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With a mind for computers and mechanical aptitude inherited from his father, 16-year-old Keith Thelen turned a central Minnesota community center into a tech-savvy place where disadvantaged youths can learn computer skills after school.
Keith also worked with North Country Internet Service to provide free wireless Internet access to some families with no phones. For his outstanding volunteerism, Keith was named a national winner this month in the Kohl's Kids Who Care program.
He received a $5,000 scholarship, and Kohl's contributed $1,000 to the community center, Lone Pine, which is in a refurbished mobile home. Keith will use the money to buy four used iMac computers.
"They're fast, compared to what we have now," Keith said. "The kids like the colors of them. . . . A few of them have asked if I can still get the lime green ones."
A kid with a super brain and big heart, Keith was introduced to computers by a fourth-grade teacher. By fifth grade, he was tinkering on a used computer another teacher gave him and taught himself to repair it.
Soon Keith was building computers. His father, Jeff Thelen, expanded the family's shelving to store the parts. Shermer's Computers in Mora provided the parts free or at a discount.
"He's run his own business since he was 13," said Susan Thelen, Keith's mother. "He's been like 40 since he was 3. The kid's been reading since he was 3. By the time he was 12, he was using words I didn't know. He's very gifted and uses his talents but doesn't want any attention drawn to him."
A small business is born
Keith said he can build a computer with refurbished parts for about $100. By age 13, he'd built four, "the highest-end one with all the snazzy parts sold for $200, $250," Keith said. "The best parts I could get were in there. That was the machine I used for a while."
Keith later sold the computers from a picnic table on their lawn. People asked him to service the computers, and within a few months he had a small business, Main Computers. Keith charged $15 an hour at the outset -- today it's $25.
"People jumped on that," he said. "And I was available; that was the other thing. Other shops were booked up until Christmas."
When Keith learned there were computer problems at Lone Pine he headed to the center on his bike and introduced himself to its director, Paula Vanecek.
"He showed up at the door one day after school," said Vanecek, who nominated Keith for the Kohl's award. "I think he was still in eighth grade. He said, 'I understand you need some help with your computers here.' He started tinkering and by ninth grade, was coming here every day."
A new project
Vanecek and Keith began collecting old computers. Keith scoured landfills for them on 4-H Kanabec County Clean-up Day, used the parts to refurbish better computers and gave them to low-income families. He transported them on a trailer he pulled with his bike.
Keith created software for Lone Pine's D.R.E.A.M. (Determined, Responsible, Educated, Achieving, Motivated) Girls project. Girls learn about professional women through video interviews. Keith is teaching the girls video editing. With money from the Women's Foundation of Minnesota, Keith bought a used computer for the project; Vanecek, a camcorder. Keith hooked up the equipment and taught the girls to use it. He created the Lone Pine Web site and is teaching the girls to manage it.
Keith's latest project is More Youth Small Business (MYSB). He gave a presentation on it last year to the Mora City Council for approval to use it at Lone Pine.
MYSB teaches youths about running a small business with an emphasis on using computers. With help from volunteers in the Mora High School shop class, Keith custom-designed sales booths for old Apple laptops donated by Rum River Special Education. Keith refurbished the computers, created Point-of-Sale software, added scanners and receipt printers. Youths in MYSB will sell youth-made products from the booths.
"We operate out of a trailer court," said Keith. "There are kids growing up in that sort of situation and regular kids in town there who've had no experience with business. We'll teach them to run a little business."
Mechanical skills run gamut
Keith's mechanical ability goes beyond computers. When the air conditioning at Lone Pine malfunctioned recently, Keith found an old motor with a fan in it to temporarily cool the trailer. When local dentist John Skillicorn donated an aquarium, Keith hooked it up and filled it with lake water and minnows until fish could be bought.
In his spare time, Keith builds model rockets and airplanes and fixes the family snowmobile and Go Kart with his father, a disabled mechanic. They began repairing cars when Keith was in grade school.
Keith resigned from his position as systems administrator at Lone Pine in July, but visits often. "I'm going to try to focus more on school and look into getting a job," he said.
He left Vanecek 20 pages of plans he hopes to implement someday.
"Many of them are well on their way to being completed already," he said.
"Keith was my right-hand man," said Vanecek. "I don't know what I would do without him."
If you know an outstanding volunteer you'd like to see featured in this column, please write to Helping Out, Faith & Values, Star Tribune, 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488.
Karen Gail Jostad is at kjostad@startribune.com
