AmeriCorps Week is Coming!

This is Betsy Knoll serving with the 4-H Mentor Michigan Initiative and Ottawa County Michigan State University Extension. Our 4-H Mentor Michigan Initiative members are hard at work planning several unique service projects and events for the 2010 AmeriCorps Week coming up this May. With a program as large as ours, it’s hard to give props to all the great service being done during that week, but here are two projects that are occurring within our program:

AmeriCorps member Barb Brow of Ottawa County MSU Extension is passionate about education and reading. So it is particularly fitting that she is coordinating a book drive to benefit the Holland Medical Center with their Reach Out and Read program. Reach Out and Read is a program to help promote literacy in the home. The doctors and nurses at the Holland Medical Center have been specially trained in literacy development to further assist in this effort. Barb is collecting new and gently used books so each young patient can be given a new book that they can take with them to build a library at home. The Holland Medical Center is also collecting used books to assist in the construction of their own literacy room. Within their waiting room children and parents will have access to the library while waiting for their appointments.

Since the start of the month of April, Barb has collected more than 100 new and used books – but she isn’t done yet! The drive is continuing through AmeriCorps Week (May 8 – 15) and she would love your help. If you don’t have a service project (or if you’d like to participate in another) during AmeriCorps Week, contact Barb at browb@msu.edu or call 616-994-4574 to host a collection box at your site.

Another great project going on during AmeriCorps Week is Step Up Lansing, spearheaded by 4-H Mentor Michigan Initiative AmeriCorps member Jillian Tremonti. On Saturday, May 8, 2010, AmeriCorps members and alumni in the greater Lansing area will gather together to host an event called "Step Up Lansing: Get Things Done for Our Community." This event is designed to promote National Service and challenge Lansing residents to volunteer during the 2010 AmeriCorps Week.

Lansing-area AmeriCorps members recognize AmeriCorps Week as a perfect opportunity to help residents get involved within their community, spread the word about National Service, and share the importance of giving back. On May 8, "Step Up Lansing" will offer residents the chance to participate in a number of different community service projects at various service hubs throughout the greater Lansing area. Each service hub will focus on different types of projects – beautification, restoration, awareness, conservation, clean-ups, and trainings are currently being offered. Service hubs will range in focus and skill level in an effort to accommodate the diversity of participating volunteers.

If you are an AmeriCorps member in the Lansing area and would like to get involved, please contact Jillian Tremonti at tremont5@msu.edu, or call 517-353-9418.

These are just a few of the projects going on within our program. Tell us about your service projects planned for the 2010 AmeriCorps Week; we want to hear about them! And I’ll see many of you at the Russ Mawby Signature Service Project next month in Kalamazoo!