Zach White/Havre Daily News
Local AmeriCorps members raise awareness about their program Monday evening with free hot dogs at a barbecue at Town Square.
For nearly 20 years, AmeriCorps and its members have served communities across the country. This week, for the fifth year, AmeriCorps volunteers are standing up for some recognition of the work they’ve done and are doing.
In Havre, members of the program and its subsidiaries, Campus Corps, Energy Corps and Volunteers In Service To America, held a barbecue in Town Square on Monday.
“It’s AmeriCorps Week, so we thought we’d just let the community know we’re here, ” Delme Mundell-Watson, Montana State University-Northern’s Montana Campus Corps leader, said over the grill.
Mundell-Watson has been the Campus Corps leader for the past two years, recruiting and organizing student volunteers at Northern.
He and 18 volunteers he works with help out with YouthBuild, for at-risk youths, and the annual Everybody Loves Firefighters Food Drive.
Montana Campus Corps is just one of the many Montana AmeriCorps programs, coordinated with the Governor’s Office of Community Service, including Conservation Corps, Energy Corps and the Young Adult Service Corps.
VISTA is another of the branches of AmeriCorps, at the federal level, that was created in 1965 as a kind of Peace Corps at home. It was made a part of AmeriCorps when President Bill Clinton created the program in 1993.
VISTA coordinates a number of programs across the state, including the Prevention Resource Center and the Montana Legal Services Association.
Havre has members of Montana Campus Corps, Energy Corps and VISTA, with occasional help from members of other programs in larger communities.
Jessica McLaire, with VISTA, works at the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line on “building involvement with parent volunteers. ”
Energy Corps, a project of the National Center for Appropriate Technology in Butte, has members help community members with energy concerns, through work with projects like the Low Income Energy Assistance Program, where low-income households can get help weatherizing their homes to help lower energy usage and bills that go with it.
A lot of local Energy Corps work is done through local organizations like Opportunity Link.
Executive Director Barbara Stiffarm said her organization wanted to work with NCAT to help members of local communities, including reservations like Rocky Boy and Fort Belknap, so they co-sponsored the project and brought members up.
Not only are the projects exciting and helpful for these communities, according to Stiffarm, but the Corps people that make them happen are impressive in the development of their projects and their support of each other.
“We have had some great AmeriCorps members and some great luck in recruiting volunteers, ” Stiffarm said.
