Michigan’s AmeriCorps Members Help with Natural Disasters down South

Welcome to summer. I am Misty Youngson, a member of the AmeriCorps: Together We Prepare Program serving with the American Red Cross in Traverse City. As you are aware, the Red Cross has had an active spring with the numerous disasters occurring throughout our country and state. We have deployed many of our members to floods and tornadoes in various locations such as Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, and most recently to Missouri. Many of our team members were deployed as client caseworkers or mass care shelter staff.

I was deployed for three weeks to Arkansas to provide assistance to people affected by tornadoes and floods. I flew to Little Rock to serve as a client caseworker. From Little Rock, I was dispatched to Jonesboro, Arkansas near the Mississippi River. In this position, the caseworker interviews clients to determine what their immediate emergency needs are for food, clothing, and shelter. We then issue funds to help them through the first few days of the disaster. We will also let our clients know where to find open shelters or feeding stations in their area, so they may stock up on meals-ready-to-eat, water, or have a safe place to sleep for the night.

A client caseworker also provides emotional support to families. We give referrals to our nurses for health-related needs, as well as mental health staff for emotional needs. Referrals are also given to other agencies that are able to meet needs not provided by the American Red Cross, such as furniture, long term medical needs, or housing needs. All of these services are provided as gifts from the American public through the donations the Red Cross receives. The American Red Cross does not receive funds from any government agencies.

My experience in Arkansas was both heart wrenching and heart warming. Our disaster clients have experienced tremendous loss and suffering. Some do not know where they will live next month. However, even under such dire conditions, they smile, joke, and tell a story about their kin, neighbor, or pet. They thank us for being there, away from our own children, spouse, and families for three weeks at a time to provide service to them. Our clients are very appreciative of any service or information we provide, whether it is financial help, information on how to safely return to their home, or clean mold and mildew from the walls. 

A national deployment to a large disaster is a life-changing experience. You will return home with a sense of sadness at not having been able to stay longer, give more, do more.  However, you will also return home with a sense of pride at how resilient Americans are when faced with a crisis. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer with the American Red Cross, call your local chapter or visit www.redcross.org for more information.

Really Raised Garden Beds – Allowing Everyone to Get Involved

My name is John Bolan and I am an AmeriCorps member serving with the Power of We Consortium at the NorthWest Initiative’s Food System Project in Lansing. On April the 16, at the Allen Neighborhood Center’s (ANC) Hunter Park Garden House, myself and fellow AmeriCorps members Bekah Galang and Kathleen Egan, and community advocate/ANC Intern Jared Talaga mobilized 44 volunteers from the community, Power of We AmeriCorps State and VISTA programs, and more than 20 youth volunteers to build Really Raised gardens beds.

The beds were built at the Hunter Park Garden House, and designed by ANC intern Jared Talaga to better accommodate members in the community who might not be able to do the bending and kneeling gardening often requires. Brick pavers were laid to ensure easier wheel chair mobility and access.

The project was part of 2011 Global Youth Service Day. Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is an annual campaign that celebrates and mobilizes the millions of children and youth who improve their communities each day through service and service-learning. Established in 1988, GYSD is the largest service event in the world and is now celebrated in more than 100 countries. On GYSD, children and youth address the world’s most critical issues in partnership with families, schools, community and faith-based organizations, businesses, and governments.

Our project was lucky enough to receive both a Global Youth Service Day mini-grant as well as a Diversity and Inclusion mini-grant from the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) and The LEAGUE Michigan; we were also able to secure donations from the west Lansing Home Depot.

Planning this event involved long days and even longer nights but thanks to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved the project turned out to be a huge success. It will be used as a model for other gardens across the city and state to make sure all of our citizens have access to the gardening experience that we might sometimes take for granted. This project really opened up my mind to disability and inclusion issues that I have not thought about before, but will forever be aware of now. There were many amazing aspects to this project, but by far the best was seeing a community coming together to make a positive change for people they might never meet.

Grand Rapids Youth Fair Demonstrates the Value of After School Programming

Hello! I’m Megan Hunter and I serve with Camp Fire USA AmeriCorps.

Last Saturday, May 21 2011, Creston High School hosted the Grand Rapids Youth Fair, an annual event that showcases work done by students throughout Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) after school programs. This year there were 34 elementary, middle and high schools included, and it proved to be a great opportunity for anyone curious about what is going on with the city’s youth. Most everyone knows about the programs offered by GRPS, but few are able to see what goes on inside.

As one of the high school students who spoke in the opening ceremony said, “When I first joined LOFT (city sponsored high school after school programming), I wanted a place to chill out and do my homework. It was only later that I found out that there was much more to it.” The events of the Youth Fair really showed what he meant.

The artwork, projects and presentations done by the kids reflected the innovation and versatility that defines Grand Rapids after school programs. Walking through the display area, one could find all kinds of artwork from paintings to 3-D sculptures. At Covell High School’s award winning booth, a 2 ½ foot dolphin made from over 3,000 recycled milk caps was the centerpiece, representing their theme of protecting ocean animals. Other displays ranged from posters about different countries and cultures to water color paintings and plaster handprints.

In addition to display booths for each school however, the Youth Fair was an opportunity for students to perform on stage. The school’s auditorium attracted a wide audience where 12 different groups performed dance routines as well as poetry and raps. Students from Kent Hills recited a poem about environmental issues, while Brookside students performed an original rap about segregation in Grand Rapids. These unique performances accompanied some Hispanic cultural dances as well as several hip-hop routines.

Clearly students are doing more than homework and busywork when they go to their after school programs. Their work could compete with that done in any art or dance class, and their original poems and lyrics revealed some powerful ideas and lessons learned in the process. Youth fair was a great success and a day that proved to be “all about the kids”.

Serving at Signature Service Project

Hello! I’m Andrea Villaneuva and I serve with the Mentor Michigan College Coaching Corps.

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I ought to do and, by the grace of God, I shall do.” These powerful words were once said by Edward Everett Hale and were repeated again to 350 AmeriCorps members gathered in Grand Rapids to celebrate Michigan’s AmeriCorps Week and kick off the 2011 Russ Mawby Signature Service Project.

Many times as AmeriCorps members we can feel as if our efforts are hard to see, but the weekend of May 20 my efforts; our efforts, were seen instantaneously. That’s one of the things I love about Signature Service Project. Members from all different programs across the state gather together with one cause; to make a community better. More than 350 Michigan’s AmeriCorps members, AmeriCorps alums, community partners, and local residents served together to clean up and renovate local parks and help revamp a neighborhood with the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate. My team, “2A”, was at Hillcrest Park.

The first day we had the task of re-mulching the one and only Dog Park in the city of Grand Rapids! The mulch pile was seven parking spaces long by the width of the spots when we started. And it was equally tall! It was amazing to see members grab a tool and give themselves a task; whether it was hulling mulch via wheel barrel or tarp, or loading up said wheel barrels/tarps with a pitch fork, shovel, or by hand! In less than three hours we had re-mulched the entire park!

The second day we returned to Hillcrest Park, but to tackle other areas. There was a group of people pulling and cutting down invasive species, leveling the baseball diamond, painting fences and two play sets, picking up trash, repainting the lines on the basketball court, and edging the sidewalk. Everyone picked a task that interested them and got straight to work! Being the geek I am about painting, I opted to give one of the play sets a new coat of paint. I got the privilege to work alongside three amazing members. One member, Cody, told me about his service and how he uses poetry to reach out and teach youth. It was amazing to hear how he uses something that so many people overlook, and inspires youth to reach their potential. I also learned that Cody studied poetry and literature in college. His passion for youth and poetry not only impressed me but inspired me. If I had not gone to the 2011 Signature Service Project I would not have had the chance to meet Cody, among the many other remarkable people.

The experiences I had and the people I met at the Russ Mawby 2011 Signature Service Project are something I will cherish for a long time to come.