News AmeriCorps Class 17 team leaders arrive in Vinton; help at Tilford

By: Kyle Beaulieu, D.J. Bernat, Drew Simmons, and Darcy Forlenza

     On January 11, twenty-five young, eager men and women coming from locations as far as Alaska, California, Massachusetts, and Florida arrived in Vinton. For some, it was the beginning of a second AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) adventure. For others, it was the beginning of a brand new experience. For all, it was a whirlwind of paperwork, strange faces, and new green uniforms with the symbolic “A” that marks all AmeriCorps programs. Team Leader Training had begun, with a month until the remaining Corps Members arrive.

     These new leaders are known as Team Green. They bring a vast amount of knowledge and service experience to the NCCC program here in Vinton. Over the last three weeks Team Green has gone through intensive leadership and professional development training, as each will eventually lead a group of 10-12 corps members in national service projects. They've been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to give back and serve the Vinton community.

     Last week, Principal Jim Murray welcomed Team Green to Tilford Elementary, where they worked on a number of maintenance and tutoring projects. On Wednesday, the NCCC’ers dug their vans out, post-blizzard, and headed to Tilford where they disinfected lockers, removed and replaced broken ceiling tiles, shampooed auditorium seats, and cleaned 32 classrooms.  On Thursday and Friday, they worked with students on spelling, reading, math, science, and art among other subjects and had the opportunity to set up 48 new computers throughout the school. The team spent their evenings at Blessed Hope church in order to simulate what it will be like to live in off-campus housing during their future projects across the North Central U.S.

     Following completion of the Tilford mini-project, Team Leaders returned to campus for another two weeks of training before 220 Corps Members, the most the campus has ever housed at once, arrive. They’ll be divided into three units―Cedar, Maple and Oak and assigned to a team within their unit. All members will undergo a variety of trainings including First Aid, CPR and Red Cross Disaster Relief before being sent on their first project in mid-March.

The 25 team leaders are: