Celebrate AmeriCorps Week 2012

FROM VOLUNTEER CENTER OF STORY COUNTY

The Ames community will join the nationwide celebration of AmeriCorps Week, March 10-18, spotlighting the vital work done by AmeriCorps members in communities across Iowa since the national service program began in 1994.

Since 1994, 775,000 men and women have joined AmeriCorps, and they have given more than one billion hours of service to their country. AmeriCorps works through existing organizations and helps them reach more people and better achieve their mission. In 2011, the nation’s 85,000 AmeriCorps members recruited 3.4 million community volunteers to serve alongside them in some 15,000 nonprofit, faith-based and community organizations across the country.

AmeriCorps members in Ames are involved in direct service and capacity building for local nonprofit agencies. Ashley Archer and Mary Runkel are members at Youth & Shelter Services. Archer works with Students Against Destructive Decisions Coalitions throughout Story County, raising awareness about substance abuse issues within schools. Runkel works with the GRIP Mentoring Program to recruit, train, and suggest new activity ideas for mentors. Kristen Loria and Stephanie Corbett are members at the Volunteer Center of Story County. Loria engages school communities, as well as the broader Ames community, in garden, cooking, nutrition education and Farm to School programs, and facilitates the integration of these activities into the school curriculum. Corbett coordinates group volunteers and service projects and advises a youth philanthropy council.

AmeriCorps Week is an annual recruitment and recognition event to demonstrate AmeriCorps' impact on critical issues, bring more Americans into service, and thank the community partners who make AmeriCorps possible. AmeriCorps is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service. For more information, visit www.AmeriCorpsWeek.gov.