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From mixing and scooping, to serving and making change, a group of East Village teens are learning the ins and outs of the ice cream business at a neighborhood ice cream shop called "Alphabet Scoop."

The store is led by pastors Carol and Chuck Vedral, who started dishing out leadership training on East 11th Street four years ago.

"That's the kind of thing we're trying to accomplish with our teens, a job training program that will encourage them to succeed," says Carol Vedral.

The couple run a neighboring soup kitchen and food pantry through The Father's Heart Ministry Center and said they wanted to do something to prevent kids from ending up at their door.

"A lot of the people we work with really don't have the experience they need to compete in the job market," says Chuck Vedral. "So that's really been our goal, to help prepare them to compete."

More than 80 high school students have been employed since the store opened.

"I've earned everything I've accomplished here. I'm supervisor now," says 19-year-old employee Samantha Crespo. "I didn't just come in and become supervisor. I've been working here for four years and I got promoted to supervisor recently. I've done nothing but work to the top."

Carol Vedral says the program is successful because of the love that goes into it.

"People work best in an atmosphere of unconditionals: unconditional commitment, unconditional love, unconditional acceptance," she says. "They thrive and grow better in that environment."

Coupled with the unconditional support is a no-fire policy and a mentoring program.

"A lot of the mentors, they're not that far from our age," says Crespo. "I'm 19, some of the mentors will be 25, 24. It's not like they're ancient. It's not like they didn't go through anything we didn't."

The money the shop raises goes toward paying the teens, keeping up the store and helping fund the soup kitchen and food pantry next door.

Employees say they learn skills they will use for the rest of their lives.

"Even if I get another job after here, I think I'll still help out here because this is where I first started," said employee Roberto Monserate. "I can tell people I started working at Alphabet Scoop and that's how I got from being at the bottom, to the top."

So, for giving East Village teens a place to start, Chuck and Carol Vedral are our New Yorkers of the Week.

If you'd like to nominate someone to be NY1's New Yorker of the Week, send an email describing their qualifications to: nyer@ny1.com or mail a letter to:

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New Yorker of the Week
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