Those of us deeply invested in providing hospitality to volunteer work groups have been waiting a long time for a needless obstacle to be cleared from the road ahead of us. Yesterday, that obstacle was suddenly cleared.

The State of New Jersey has a child  labor statute that prevents young people under age 18 from going within 30 feet of a construction site. While the law provides exceptions for volunteers with non-profit organizations working to construct or repair "affordable housing," it does not apply to housing that is not specifically intended for low-income people.

That means that, according to the law, teenagers who have been staying in our Volunteer Village have not been able to join their fellow team members over the age of 18 from doing repair work on Sandy-damaged homes.

There are two things people generally don't realize about how serious an impediment to Sandy-recovery efforts this law has been.

First, they seldom understand that it's not just about the youth volunteers. Most work groups are composed of people of a variety of ages, but if a group is looking for a location for a summer mission trip and their teenaged members can't fully participate, they'll likely choose not to come to the Jersey Shore at all. This has already happened in several cases we're aware of - and that's just our site. Most of the adult advisors on such trips typically have some construction skills themselves. That means if we lose a group due to the prohibition on youth workers, we lose the experienced adult workers as well.

Second, not many are aware of how long it takes to plan and schedule a mission trip. Volunteers aren't just sitting around, with tools in their car trunks and the engine running, eager to dash to the Jersey Shore at the first opportunity. Most of the groups we're hosting this summer made their reservations many months ago, then began a long round of fund-raising activities and recruitment events to make their trip possible.

Yesterday, Governor Christie signed an executive order that clears the way for young people to start work on housing-repair projects immediately. I went over to the Annex yesterday evening and told the group gathered there - which includes a great many teenagers - that tomorrow they can join in on housing-repair work. There was the predictable cheer of celebration!

An Asbury Park Press article tells the full story.

Ironically, the Governor's action is not going to help us much in the 6 weeks of summer that remain. Come Labor Day, teenagers will be back in school, so that means this action won't have any real effect on Volunteer Village bookings until next summer. By then, the executive order will have already expired - although we have high hopes that a bill coming before the Legislature this fall will bring a permanent fix to this problem.

We're grateful to Governor Christie for stepping up and taking this action that enables youth volunteers to get to work immediately. I have high hopes that this will be just what the doctor ordered to break the logjam in the Legislature and clear the way for these energetic and committed young volunteers to do real work restoring the Shore.

Thanks to all of you who wrote letters, made phone calls and generally kept the spotlight of public opinion focused on this vital need. I'm sure these efforts have all had a cumulative effect leading to this good news.