OLD TOWN – The 6-foot black rocket surged from the launch pad with a searing scream and pushed upward, peaking hundreds of feet – maybe a thousand – into the sky before plummeting back to earth.

On the ground, the group of fourth-graders and their mentors looked on with awe Saturday – and probably with a sense of relief since two earlier attempts at flight had fizzled with a pop.

Rocketry was one of the projects that both adults and youths had worked on as part of an eight-month pilot program aimed at providing young people with a greater respect for themselves and others.

Called the Youth Leadership Program, the project was established initially by Old Town police Officers Tom Adams and Dana Andrews in June 2000. But it quickly expanded to include other police officers, school and fire department officials and community members.

The idea behind it is simple.

Police officers had been seeing criminal activity start as early as fifth grade, anything from assaults to stealing bicycles and defacing public property. So the police officers sought to reach out to the young people before that grade in hopes of leaving lasting positive impressions – something that the boys would carry with them as they grew into adulthood.

“The respect is really starting to degenerate around here,” Andrews said earlier this year. “They have no respect for parents or police officers. … I think that probably one of the biggest things with these kids is that they lack confidence and respect for themselves, and that just leads to not respecting anybody else.”

The idea was that reaching out to this age group potentially would help the youths, help the police and benefit the community overall.

“These kids are the future of our community, and anything that we can do to help their self-esteem and respect for other people will definitely benefit our community in the future,” Adams said.

Although other programs existed that offered some of the same elements of camaraderie, structure and team-building, organizers worried that some young people were still falling through the cracks, unwilling or unable to attend the other programs.

The officers’ plans were ambitious – a program that combined activities that could keep young people interested while weaving in social and safety skills with minimal or no cost to the parents. Their agenda was likewise impressive and included training in water and fire safety, orienteering, rope climbing, CPR and excursions to athletic events such as UMaine hockey and basketball games.

The police officers developed a curriculum based on a program already in place that had worked so well with young girls in Old Town. They then began knocking on doors, looking for volunteers and financial backing to get the program up and running.

They got both.

With donations from people such as Herbert Sargent and corporations such as Wal-Mart, organizers were able to cover costs that included buying basic uniforms for each of the nearly two dozen pupils.

The other vital thing couldn’t be bought. The program needed mentors, men who could serve as role models for the boys, some of whom didn’t have steady male influences in their lives.

By the time they started in the fall, the program had nearly one mentor for every 23 cadets, drawing upon many fields, including local businessmen and retired and current educators.

Tim Marquis, 35, already had three young children of his own at home and busy careers teaching mechanical engineering at the University of Maine and as a captain in the Air National Guard, when he decided to help out others.

With his background, Marquis said he knows the importance of being able to follow orders, leading others and cooperation, ideals he hopes the program has imparted to the young people.

“A good follower will someday be a leader,” Marquis said during an intermission between rocket launches Saturday at the Old Town municipal airport.

To that end, all the fourth-graders were broken up into four squads from the start. Each squad had a squad leader, a position that rotated regularly so that each boy had a chance to take charge, and responsibility, for others.

While the roles of leaders and the importance of cooperation were emphasized throughout the school year, they really came into play this past week, when the program ended with a boot camp where 16 of the cadets spent all week living military style, sleeping on cots and working as teams.

Days started early, with reveille at 6:30 a.m. and sometimes earlier. After exercises they hit the showers and prepared for their morning meal and inspections.

During the day, when they weren’t rappelling, learning skills such as CPR or practicing the dos and don’ts of extinguishing fires, the cadets had cleanup duties, including kitchen patrol, laundry duty or worse, latrine duty. Beds had to be tidy and in order.

Last Wednesday night at inspection, the cadets stiffened to attention when grim-faced Dana Andrews entered the portable classroom-turned-boot camp barracks. Andrews cut a commanding presence as he eyed the cots, looking for anything out of place. At one of the first cots, he asked a cadet about the difference between the youth’s cot and all the others.

“It’s slanted, sir,” the boy acknowledged without hesitation.

That mistake earned the youth 10 pushups. Several other squad members, including a squad leader, wound up on the floor doing pushups because of mistakes. In the squad leader’s case, it was a wash towel that hadn’t been folded and put away properly.

Andrews and Adams said that the boys aren’t required to do anything beyond their physical capabilities.

As firm as they are when finding mistakes, they are equally quick at commending the cadets when things are done properly.

One cot was found as it should be, with sleeping bag at the foot, blanket folded up in the middle and the pillow at the top. Gear was stowed properly underneath.

“That’s a sign of a leader; everything’s perfect on his rack,” Andrews said.

Mentors said that they’ve noticed improvements in the youths who started out last October. Some were hyperactive and found it hard to focus on matters at hand. Now they are snapping to attention and lining up and showing proper respect to authority.

It’s a change that parents have noticed and hope will continue, while acknowledging that it will be up to the adults at home to reinforce the positive traits fostered in the program.

In addition to exposure to new activities such as fly-fishing, Christy Avery’s 10-year-old son, Kyle Kosobud, has had a chance in the mentor program to experience leadership. As a result, she said, Kyle has been showing more initiative at home, offering to help out more than before. It’s also provided a “constructive way of knowing that they have a choice and that there are ramifications for any decisions,” she said.

During one telephone conversation with her 10-year-old son, Seth Hopkins, while at boot camp, Cynthia Gaudet said her son interrupted her, saying, “Excuse me, ma’am.”

It was a distant but familiar ring for Gaudet, who comes from a military family and who has concluded that young people these days aren’t as courteous as they once were. While she’s not expecting the “ma’ams” to continue at home, she said, she wouldn’t mind if that courtesy extended outside the family, such as when she introduces Seth to other people.

Gaudet has been impressed with the program and, like other parents, she hopes they can continue with it next year.

“I think this program will be something that he’ll look back on and always remember as a good experience,” she said.