Nearly every teenager has been told the same thing at one point in their lives, “Go get a job.” For a record 407 applicants of the city of Selma’s annual Summer Youth Employment program, they hope their name is called Wednesday for just that very thing; a job.

Wednesday, the city will host a lottery drawing for the open positions this summer to work with some of the city departments, but this year’s schedule and the numbers of youth hired may be a little different.

Selma Mayor George Evans, in an effort to hire more youth than ever before, has discussed a plan that would hire more than 200 youth, but for four-week installments.

“My goal — because we’ve got so many applicants — is move it to eight weeks, but have two shifts,” Evans said Friday. “One group would work four weeks and then another group would work another four weeks.”

As of Friday, Evans said the city has budgeted enough funds, and received contributions, to support the hiring of 106 people per four-week shift, bringing the projected number of hires to 212.

“We would need another $23,000 or so to get roughly 400 total people hired this summer, with 200 working in each four-week shift,” Evans said. “Now we do have about two or three contributors still out there who have not come in with their contributions, so the exact number of children we’ll be able to hire is really unknown. I really hope we can find sponsors, contributors to help us get every applicant hired.”

The lottery drawing for the program will be Wednesday, May 23 at 5 p.m. at the Carl Morgan Convention Center. City council members, council president Cecil Williamson and Evans will each draw names.

Applicants must be present at the event in order for the job to be awarded to them if their name is called. If a name is called and the applicant is not present, another name will be drawn.

“Over the summers we’ve had, the children have done a really good job to be honest with you. We have different ones assigned different responsibilities and they’ve always performed very well. It’s always an exciting time, I just hope we can find the money to get even more hired for the summer,” Evans said. “They’ve always done a good job for the city, and I am convinced that tradition will continue.”

Those interested in making a contribution to the program can contact Evans’ office at 874-2101.