Et Cetera

  By: Deanna Golab and Conor McCormack AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps team, Hickory 3 recently spent a day with the Rocky Mountain Feline Rescue Shelter in Denver, Colo. cleaning the facility and socializing the cats. The Feline Rescue is a no-kill cat shelter whose mission is to shelter and care for abandoned, abused and unwanted cats and kittens until permanent homes can be found, encourage responsible pet ownership, educate the public through community outreach and provide trap and release spay/neuter information and resources to the public.

  Maxine Dennis of Guinda, Calif., is serving as a member of the NCCC FEMA Corps team Spruce 3 at the Vinton Campus. She chose to participate in AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps because she wanted to gain some new life experiences before returning to college to complete her degree.  Maxine graduated from Esparto High School in 2008 and attended Olympic College before joining NCCC FEMA Corps.

  By Emily Irwin AmeriCorps NCCC team Cedar 3 is serving with the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities in Stockholm, Hudson, and Amery, Wis. as well as Monticello and Loretto, Minn. working on a variety of projects. To date, Cedar 3 has visited Camp Pepin in Stockholm, Wis. where they completed a full course of disc golf tee pads and did the yearly maintenance of getting the cabins clean and ready for campers.

  By Holly Adams On Saturday, May 11 members of the NCCC FEMA Corps team Spruce 2 volunteered at the Texas Rustlers Guinea Pig Rescue in Lewisville, Texas. Texas Rustlers is a nonprofit whose goal is to rescue and take care of abandoned guinea pigs, rabbits and other small rodents. Every year hundreds of small rodents are abandoned by their owners.

  Kirkwood Community College will soon honor almost 3,000 students taking positive steps for their futures. The college will hold commencement ceremonies for its college credit and GED/adult high school programs this week. Both ceremonies will be held at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. Kirkwood will confer 2,476 college credit degrees, diplomas and certificates for study in the current academic year.

 Julia Davis of Natick, Mass.,  is serving as a member of the NCCC FEMA Corps team Spruce 6 at the Vinton Campus. She chose to participate in AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps because service has always been an integral part of her life and she wanted to dedicate herself to it fulltime after graduating from college.   Julie graduated from Natick High School in 2008 and University of Delaware in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in Health Behavior Science.

  By: Krista Eichhorst Name: Conor McCormack Hometown: Worcestor, Mass. Conor is serving as a member of the NCCC FEMA Corps team Hickory 3 at the Vinton Campus. He chose to participate in AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps because he grew up with a strong commitment to community service and thought that this program would be an ideal way for him to give back to his country while also gaining great work experience.

By Stacey Kilpatrick On Saturday, April 27, AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps teams Hickory 1 and Hickory 3 joined together to organize a Community Day volunteering at Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison, Colo. The two teams, along with eight community volunteers, completed projects at the main Visitor Center as well the new office located about 10 minutes off-site in the vicinity of Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

By Sarah Kubishta For Global Youth Service Day on April 27, FEMA Corps team Hickory 6 from the Vinton Campus volunteered at the Walk to End Lupus Now in Washington. This event took place along Pennsylvania Avenue with participants walking to the Capital and was organized to stop lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease where the body’s immune system attacks healthy tissue.

  By: Rebecca Bigler   Zachary Kahn, from Silver Spring, Md., is the Team Leader for Cedar 2 in NCCC’s Class 19. He arrived in Vinton on January 8, 2013, to start his 11-month service term leading a team of people between the ages of 18 and 24. Cedar 2 is made up of eight people from across the country, and they will serve together in a number of service projects across the North Central Region.