VYT Voices Winter Newsletter 2010

VYT Voices

VERM

ONT YOUTH TOM

ORROW

A*VISTA

Stephanie Atwood 3

Kristin Feierabend 4

Elissa Yonkers 5-6

Morgan Webster 9

Keegan Albaugh 10

Erin Schlitts 12

Marissa Fischer 17

Kelsey Haigh 2

Erika Rogness 15

Jackie Yenerall 4

Paige McCormick 12

Betsy Fournier 11

Heather Timins 6

Adam Catanzarite 8

Sara Novak 9

Bethany Halliday 8

Benji Thurber 11

Ruth Poland 7

Chrissy Anderson 15

Ryan Deery 10

Laura Buchanan 7

Dan Shamblin 14

Kate Tagai 14

Terri Daugherty 13

Annie McShiras 16

Marcus Santos 16

Inside this issue:

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2010

Volume 1, Issue 2

Winter 2010

Tara Robinson

AmeriCorps*VISTA Leader

Vermont Youth Tomorrow

Montpelier, VT

Dear Readers,

In this edition of VYT Voices, our members explore the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the implications it has had on National Service. Every January A*VISTAs join other national service members in a day of service on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a day on instead of a day off. MLK Day offers A*VISTAs a unique opportunity to involve them-selves directly in the community where they serve. This di-rect service is not the normal function of an A*VISTA who may sometimes crave that direct connection to the commu-nity they support so well behind the scenes. It is also an op-portunity to invite the community to join in on a project that will not only strengthen the community as a whole, but will build and strengthen their own bonds to their community.

This year I teamed up with Central Vermont area AmeriCorps members to put together an array of service projects to address local needs. The days projects included a community lunch and lecture at a local soup kitchen, creating “I Have a Dream” catchers with local youth, cleaning up the devastation left by a fire at the Montpelier Senior Center, sorting food at the FoodBank in Barre, and painting a room in the Montpelier Recreation Department. I took some time during the day to visit each project in order to document the incredible things that can be accomplished when members from the community come together with a single goal: to lend a hand. Our service projects offered no quick fixes for the issues facing Central VT, but it reaffirmed my commit-ment to serving.

In the spirit of service, take a moment to read what MLK Day meant for our members and ponder what you may get involved in for the next Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

VYT VOICES

Kelsey Haigh

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Willowell Foundation

Monkton, VT

As one of three VISTAs serving in Addison County, I teamed up with the VISTAs at the Middlebury Col-lege Alliance for Civic Engagement for this year’s Martin Luther King Day of Service activities. The main project I helped coordinate was painting and carpentry projects at Vermont Adult Learning in Middlebury. Although only one college student showed up, Emily helped paint an entire classroom and I designed and built the poster holder below in less than 5 hours! Now those are some good volunteers.

After Vermont Adult Learning I also volunteered for a few hours at an art event with Speak Up! Addison County, a group of self-advocates with developmental disabilities. We had a lot of fun with the group members and created art that will be used for advertising and fundraising. Although VISTA is a service program, it is does not generally involve direct service, so just volunteering was really a nice break from me regular routine! It was a nice reminder to me about what is at the heart of commu-nity service - making a conscious choice to engage in and with community to accomplish.

1 AmeriCorps*VISTA + 1 Middlebury College student = Mission Accomplished!

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I walked to the Montpelier Recreation Depart-ment, dressed in old jeans and my VYT shirt, ready to serve. I had signed up to help paint the Victorian Room, a room used for commu-nity classes, meetings, and parties.

I was excited to do some direct ser-vice, especially since there seemed to be a clear connection between my regular VISTA service and painting at the Rec. Department. I cur-rently serve at the Montpelier City Planning Department, where my co-VISTA and I are in the process of developing a Community Ac-tion Plan for the city. The Action Plan con-sists of strategies to create a stronger, more sustainable Montpelier. Some of the strategies are designed to improve Montpelier’s commu-nity facilities so that the spaces are used effi-ciently and are enjoyed by community mem-bers.

Though a relatively simple service, painting the Recreation Department was a way to immediately improve a community facility. The room was transformed from a depressing grayish purple to a warm, creamy yellow. It became a place where people might actually enjoy spending time. I personally enjoyed the time I spent there on MLK Day—it was fun to serve alongside other Central Vermont Ameri-Corps members and make a difference in the Montpelier community!

Kristin Feierabend

AmeriCorps*VISTA

enVision Montpelier

Montpelier, VT

Kristin painting the Victorian Room in the Montpelier Recreation Department.

Jackie Yenerall

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Vermont Foodbank

Wolcott, VT

For my MLK day event I worked with the Lamoille Valley Hunger Coalition to offer a Hunger Workshop and Training. The purpose of the day was to increase awareness of the services available to those in need, with an emphasis with the services in the Lamoille Valley. The workshop was open to anyone who worked, either directly or indirectly, with a low-income popula-tion. The first half of the workshop focused on the dif-ferent government programs available to help people make ends meet, with a focus on 3SquaresVT and WIC. The second half of workshop is the portion I worked on and it dealt with how to properly store and handle pro-duce in order to keep it fresh longer. I put on a cooking demonstration to give people ideas on how to use some of the less common winter vegetables and there was a tasting to expose them to different vegetables. Overall I think it was a success, even though we had a relatively small turnout (only about 12 people) all the feedback was very positive and now the Coalition is considering offer-ing the workshop again in the future and the Foodbank is considering using the produce portion of the training as a workshop offered to its Network Partners.

Stephanie Atwood

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Operation Military Kids

Colchester, VT

(On previous page….)

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

A Photo and Narrative Story:

MLK, AmeriCorps, and Essex

CHIPS

Once upon a time, there was a man named Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a

civil rights activist, and in general a pretty cool guy. In addition to pushing for

equal rights to all people, he encouraged people to serve one another.

“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve,” he once said. Sadly, he

was assassinated in 1968, and in honor of his work and contribution to the coun-

try Congress gave him his own holiday in 1994!

Around the time MLK lived, there was another man named Lyndon B. John-

son, President of the U.S.A. He also thought helping others out was a good

idea. Specifically, he wanted to help in the “War on Poverty.” So he created

VISTA in 1964, which would one day become a part of AmeriCorps. The mis-

sion of AmeriCorps*VISTA is to help those in poverty, and encourage people

to become active in community service.

Essex CHIPS was formed by the communities of Essex, Essex Junction, and Westford in 1986. To help run and support their teen center, they brought in 3 AmeriCorps members, one of which was a VISTA. As part of their service to America, these members helped plan MLK 2010 in Essex. Together, with some community members, they planned 6 com-munity service events throughout Essex and Essex Junction and a com-munity dinner.

Elissa Yonkers

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Essex CHIPS

Essex Junction, VT

Over 50 community members came out to help with the projects. Some shoveled out Fire hydrants, other helped cook lasagna for a community meal, and still others made cards for shut-ins and troops stationed overseas. Even more helped paint inside a school, and some even were trained as facilitators to help in a local project to better the community .

After all of their service, community members gathered together, and ate the lasa-

gna. There was plenty to go around, and it tasted delicious. The community mem-

bers talked about their service, and their interests, and had a chance to meet one

another. Over all, it was a great day.

More on next page...

VYT VOICES

At the end of the day, the AmeriCorps members at Essex CHIPS were very tired. They had worked hard and long to organize everything for MLK, and were glad it had gone so well. Still, even after the lasagna was eaten, they had to put everything away.

As they were opening the back of the car, a box of left over food (including eggs) had moved during the short trip, and fell out of the car. It crashed to the ground. “Oh no!” The AmeriCorps members yelled, “The Eggs!” Living on AmeriCorps stipends was not easy, and they did not want to waste any food, especially delicious eggs.

When they began to pick up the eggs, they realized one had not broken. “It’s an

MLK Day miracle!” They exclaimed. The happily finished putting things away,

and then they all went home. They were proud of the service they had done that

day. They were confident they were “Getting things done for America.”

The End

Heather Timins

AmeriCorps*VISTA

CHILL

Burlington, VT

Each week at Chill we focus on a new life skill, known as our “weekly theme.” These past two weeks the weekly themes, patience and persistence, correspond nicely with MLK Day. At Chill we use snowboarding as a vehicle to help the kids develop and improve their patience and persistence. As they learned to balance, link turns and stop in control, they also found a way to get up and try again when they fell down. These seemingly small victories are the essence of success, and are the exact characteris-tics that helped Martin Luther King, Jr. achieve eve-rything he did. MLK Jr. never gave up on himself or his beliefs, despite what others thought. He wanted to create a better future, for himself and others. He knew that in life he would fall (a lot) and if he wanted to achieve something, he had to be patient and per-sistent. This week at Chill I heard the phrase “I’ll get it next time” more than ever, and this is the exact attitude that youth need to develop. The goal is to have each youth end the six week snowboarding

program with the thought “If I can do this, I can do anything” because snowboarding takes a lot of pa-tience, persistence and practice. It is really cool to see the valiant characteristics of Martin Luther King, Jr. reflected in the determined faces of the youth partici-pating through Chill. Who knows, maybe there is a courageous, passionate leader amongst our new shred-ders?

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

The Windham County MLK Day of Service and Celebration consisted of several successful events in Brattle-boro. In the morning, youth and adults participated in two, simultaneous service activities at Morningside Shelter and at the Southern Vermont branch of the Vermont Foodbank. At Morningside, participants cooked a pancake breakfast for residents and worked to improve the facilities by painting, cleaning, and shoveling snow. At the Food Bank, volunteers helped sort parsnips originally gleaned from a nearby farm for distribution at local hunger-relief organizations. After the conclusion of the service event, volunteers and community members gathered on Main Street at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden for lunch and celebration. After viewing the PBS film The Remembrance of Martin and dining on a meal donated by local businesses (please see below), youth gathered to watch their peers perform in a talent show / open mic. We wish to offer a huge “thank you!” to all those who attended and helped to make this event a suc-cess. Windham County Americorps members wish to thank the following businesses and organizations for their do-nations and/or participation in this event: Brattleboro Food Coop, Putney Food Coop, Grafton Village Cheese, Pizza Hut in Brattleboro, Vermont Inn Pizza in Brattleboro, Millennium Pizza in Brattleboro, Brattleboro Village Pizza in Brattleboro, Southern Vermont Branch of, Vermont Foodbank in Brattleboro, Morningside Shelter in Brattleboro, Robert H. Gibson River Garden in Brattleboro, The Observer in Brattleboro, The Brattleboro Reformer

To finish off our scrumptious lunch, we enjoyed some delicious home-baked goods! Feel free to try these family recipes at home for some tasty treats or your own.

Laura Buchanan

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Science, Eng., & Tech. 4H

Brattleboro, VT

Ruth Poland

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Youth Horticulture Project

Brattleboro, VT

MLK Day Service and Celebration in Windham County

Mom’s Saltine Toffee Cookies Ingredients 4 ounces saltine crackers 1 cup butter 1 cup dark brown sugar 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 3/4 cup chopped pecans Directions 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). 2. Line cookie sheet with saltine crackers in single layer. 3. In a saucepan combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately pour over saltines and spread t cover crackers completely. 4. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 min-utes. Spread melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts. Cool completely and break into pieces.

Grandma Violet Buchanan’s Lemon Bars Ingredients

1 c. flour

½ c. butter

¼ c. confectioner’s sugar

1 c. granulated sugar

2 eggs

¼ t. salt

½ t. baking powder

2 T. flour

3-6 T. lemon juice (I prefer ~5)

Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 F 2. Combine 1 c. flour, butter, and confectioner’s sugar in a large bowl. Blend well using pastry blender. 3. Pat blended ingredients into an 8x8 in baking pan. Smooth with fingers until flat 4. Bake crust 20 min or until light golden in color. Let cool slightly. 5. Blend granulated sugar, eggs, salt, baking powder, 2 T flour, and lemon juice together in bowl. 6. Pour wet ingredients over pre-baked crust. 7. Bake lemon bars 20 - 25 minutes or until crust begins to brown along the edges. 8. Remove from oven, let cool. Dust with a powdered sugar topping.

VYT VOICES

Adam Catanzarite

AmeriCorps*VISTA

InSight Photography

Brattleboro, VT

January 18th was both a day of celebration and of giving back. During his lifetime Martin Luther King, Jr. in-spired countless individuals to strengthen our communities; to look past our differences and work towards the common good. In order to celebrate his legacy and what he inspired decades ago, our Windham county AmeriCorps team decided to give back with a day of service at Morningside Shelter.

A dozen volunteers turned out to help tackle some of the tasks that Morningside had on their list of things to do. A group of youth braved the cold and put their backs into shov-eling the drive to clear the snow that had fallen the night be-fore. A couple of students ventured into the basement and tidied up the pantry. Some undertook the task of folding clothes and linens that had fallen in disarray throughout the winter months. Another crewmember was sweating over the hot range cooking up delicious pancakes and sausages that would accompany the orange juice for the community break-fast.

The volunteers were inspired by the sense of com-munity that makes Morningside a unique place where resi-dents can find their feet once again with the support of one another. It was truly a day where everyone involved came together to provide support for an organization that encour-ages those who have endured hardships to not lose hope and to also build bonds with one another throughout the process.

Spending A Morning at Morningside Shelter

Bethany Halliday

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Linking Learning to Life

Burlington, VT

On MLK Day, I chose to volunteer at the Visit-ing Nurse Association’s Family Room. About a dozen volunteers, including myself, helped clean the play rooms and wash toys. The Family Room is a unique center, de-signed to promote healthy social and emotional develop-ment in children, as well as support and educate parents about raising children and alleviating stress. The Family Room is located at 20 Allen Street in Burlington, and most families participating in program activities are from Burlington’s Old North End. Services are free to partici-pants, and staff consists of nurses, social workers, and early childhood educators. Ellen Sabina, an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Family Room, says she and the Family Room staff are “thankful for all of the volunteers that came to help out.”

VYT VOICES

Sara Novak

AmeriCorps*VISTA

The Intervale Center

Burlington, VT

Social change and MLK go hand in hand. As a social change advocate, MLK sought not only to alter the laws that enabled racism, but to change the estab-lished social structures and institutions, and transform the perceptions and behaviors of Americans. On MLK day I tried to honor his legacy of social change by working as a social change advocate to address another injustice that still persists in the US- hunger.

On MLK day I worked to finalize a gleaning plan that would allow the Intervale Center to continue gleaning in the 2010 gleaning season. Its new format would allow more volunteer participation; the utiliza-tion of other, existing networks for gathering donated produce, and more efficient avenues of distribution of the gleaning product. It is the hope that all these ele-ments will combine to create a larger volume of gleaned and donated produce that can reach a greater number of hungry Vermonters. Although the act of

gleaning itself changes neither the existing structure nor institutions which perpetuate hunger in my community, it does help to broaden the awareness of the issue. I hope that by broadening awareness of the issue of hun-ger, I can help alter the perceptions of food insecurity and poverty of my community. In building a stronger gleaning program, I hope to adhere to, if even in a small way, his legacy of social change.

Morgan Webster

AmeriCorps*VISTA

InSight Photography

Brattleboro, VT

On January 18, 2010 AmeriCorps members from Brattleboro, Vermont united to honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through community service and celebration.

Martin Luther King Day reminds us of the impor-tance to serve together to create a community based on equal-ity. With this in mind, AmeriCorps members volunteered at local organizations through direct service. Half of our group served at Morningside Shelter and the others at the Brattle-boro Food Shelf. At the food shelf we prepared vegetables, which had been gleaned from a local farm. With our help the food shelf was able to distribute parsnips and carrots to those in need. After the vegetables were peeled and bagged we moved on to The Martin Luther King Day Celebration of the Arts held at a local venue called the River Garden. The event was open to the public and free of charge.

People from all walks of life and generations partici-pated throughout the afternoon’s events. The day featured local performers celebrating the life and work of Martin Lu-ther King, Jr. and empowering local youth through music, spoken word and visual arts. Throughout the afternoon we played the film In Remembrance of Martin and held open mic performances.

On MLK day we worked together to give back and unite our community in discuss and remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision of equality. Dr. King said, “Life’s persistent and most urgent questions is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ Let us keep this question in mind with eve-rything we do. Whether peeling parsnips or creating a work of art, working together we are on our way to our “Beloved Community.”

VYT A*VISTAs Laura Buchanan and Ruth Poland seen left, photo by Morgan

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

For MLK Day 2010, Winooski Recreation & Community Wellness recruited volunteers to help clean up the O’Brien Community Center, and more specifically, the rooms where our youth programs take place. The Afterschool Program (grades K-4), Boys & Girls Club (grades 5-8), and Underground Teen Center (grades 9-12) see anywhere from 40-75 different youth every day, and without someone specifically to clean the spaces on a regular basis, the rooms can get quite dirty, and clutter can quickly build up. Although staff does their best to sweep & mop, take out the trash, and wipe down the ta-bles, a thorough cleaning has been on the “to-do” list for quite some time now. A clean and clutter-free environ-ment is so important for not only the physical well-being of our youth, but the mental well-being as well. Our site attracted six volunteers to give all of the floors a proper cleaning, sort through all of the items and supplies to see what was still needed and what could go, and really organize the space so it would have a more open and welcoming feel. For 4 hours we all tore the place apart, going through old boxes of arts & crafts, sorting through books, and spraying and wiping down every square inch of the rooms where our youth pro-grams are situated. In the end, we were able to condense all of our supplies to a few storage closets, and rearrange the rooms to create a more friendly atmosphere. In the days following the cleaning, visitors to the Community Center have commented on how nice the space looks, and our youth have really shown appreciation for the

Keegan Albaugh

AmeriCorps*VISTA

The Winooski Teen Center

Burlington, VT

I cannot handle doing the same thing day in and day out. By this I do not mean the same job, this I can do, but rather, I mean the same task over and over again. That’s why my gig at the library fits so well. Rarely do I spend two days in a row on the same two tasks. My Martin Luther King Day also brought together a whole host of very different activi-ties. In the morning I, along with a few others, worked with Community Connections and about 20 elementary age kids on a multitude of activities. First we mixed together the ingredients for bread and soup to be baked for the following day’s community lunch. This, despite my protestations, was followed by an unofficial flour war at my table before we jumped into making Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” dream catchers. About lunch time I left my unruly pack to their own devices and traipsed over to the community lunch prepared by other local hardworking AmeriCorp’s mem-bers. And I must say the food, company, and inspiring speeches were all exquisite. To cap off my day, I headed out to the neighboring community of Plainfield and their local, non-profit, community based radio station WGDR. Working with community, non-profit radio is a passion of mine and therefore it was a pleasure to spend the second half of my day skanking to the roots, ska, and reggae show “The Manna Sound” while doing everything from cataloging music, shelving cds, to creating flyers.

Ryan Deery

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Kellogg Hubbard Library

Montpelier, VT

Shakin, Bakin, and

Skankin.

Ryan

helping

local

youth

make

bread.

for the space and have even started to clean up after t h e m s e l v e s a b i t m o r e . The volunteers who came to our space were phe-nomenal, and it was so great to see people using their day off to be productive and help out those in need of assis-tance. I think a lot of us get caught up with our own lives and jobs, that we forget about how important it is to lend a helping hand where one is needed. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of a world where such unselfishness existed, and it was nice to experience that dream through others’ desire to help. At points in my AmeriCorps ser-vice, it can sometimes feel that no one out there is willing to give back to their community and a lack of support can be frustrating. On MLK Day, I was reminded that there are people in the community who do care. Al-though the service was only for one day, the altruism I witnessed from our volunteers has provided me with mo-tivation to last a long time.

VYT VOICES

Benji Thurber

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Mobius the Mentoring Movement

Burlington, VT

Volunteering can be a lonely and scary activity. I serve as a recruiter for volunteer mentors at my site and one of the biggest concerns that potential mentors have is that they will feel stranded and alone; without a strong support system to help them through their men-tees’ struggles. I recently referred a young woman to the same program that I will be mentoring through later this spring and her immediate response, preceded by a huge sigh of relief, was: “Thank God you’ll be there too.”

For Martin Luther King Day, I worked with fellow VYT members and CEDO (Community and Economic Development Office) on an event honoring and supporting all of the people from the Burlington area who volunteered that day. That week was a par-ticularly full and stressful week for me—in addition to the Martin Luther King Day event on Monday, I had VYT training on Wednesday and Thursday and my site’s biggest event of the year on Thursday morning. I made my fair share of grumbling noises the prior week-end, as you can imagine. “Why am I being pulled in three directions at once?” I thought to myself on more than several occasions.

In the end, though, it was all worth the extra effort. That week was by far the most hectic time of my A*VISTA year, but, strangely enough, it validated my decision to join the A*VISTA program. While I was impressed by the fruits of our labors—the MLK event itself turned out great and the food that the committee

I was on gathered from local businesses was deli-cious—what made the event for me was being sur-rounded by so many other people of a similar mind-set who were dedicating their time to helping others. Later that week, I helped run my site’s Thank Your Mentor Day Breakfast. The breakfast was designed to honor the efforts of all 788 mentors in our sixteen Chittenden County mentoring programs. Again, while I appreci-ated seeing my hard work pay off—I helped organize and advertise the event, and I helped recruit our Na-tional Mentoring Month speaker who was a fantastic emcee—I left the Hilton that morning in awe of the 100+ mentors who had gathered together to celebrate.

As I drove off to the second day of my VYT training, I realized again how lucky I am, not just to be able to have a job that is focused around helping others in need, but to be involved with a community of other like-minded people serving similar causes for similar reasons around the state. I’ve often heard what I be-lieve to be misguided complaints about people who volunteer to “feel good about themselves” or to seek personal glory. While I can’t speak for everyone who chooses to involve themselves with volunteer work, I have to say that there is no better feeling than the one you get from seeing your own hard work recognized and at the same time celebrated as a part of a larger effort made up of many dedicated people. While indi-vidual recognition can sometimes be rewarding in and of itself, I ultimately feel validated by the broader con-text that my experiences and interactions that week have mapped out for me during the rest of my year of service.

Betsy Fournier

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Franklin Grand Isle Bookmobile

Swanton, VT

On January 18, 2010 I celebrated MLK Day by pack-aging boxes for our military troops. I invited volun-teers from military families to come and help. We also had some little helpers, local youth, create thank you cards for our troops. They were so cute! Each child created goody bag for troops. One of our local churches donated phone cards. Montgomery Ver-mont Post Office donated the boxes, tape and labels for the packages and local patrons donated candy, chap stick, baby-wipes, slimjims, playing cards and much more. We ended up with four boxes full of goodies. All in all is was a great day of service.

VYT VOICES

Erin Schlitts

AmeriCorps*VISTA

enVision Montpelier

Montpelier, VT

I’m at City Hall in downtown Burlington the morning of MLK Day sip-ping coffee, chatting with fellow VISTA members and looking around at all of the beautiful community members. It’s a not so bright day with cloudy skies and damp dew but the shining faces and spirit filled hearts of many are pacing around to dif-ferent tables trying to determine where their skills and talents are needed most. I find myself hesitating to sign up for a pro-ject with folks I knew and instead glanced around for a group of unknowns. I found a lonely project without a VISTA leader and a couple of girls looking confused. I introduced myself and quickly suggested we work together at the Horticulture Re-search Center painting a room. They seemed to be pleased by my presence enough to agree so we were off as a three.

We arrive at the site to find an older gentleman getting out of a Subaru with stickers such as “I love VT” and “Localvore” to unlock a gate. We knew we’d arrived. He greets us with a box of clementines a can of paint, primer, a few rollers and a brush. We get to work, start small talking and discover that we are standing in the room with localvore hero – Ron Krupps, author of “Lifting the Yolk: Local Solutions to America’s Farm and Food Crisis”. I suddenly realized that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

We were midway through our primer when a girl named Maureen walks in to join the fun. She is a former Ameri-Corps State member and current City Mar-ket employee. We continued our discus-sion about the food crisis in the country. We finished the wall with a few moments of silence as we meditated into the rhythms of our paint brushes. After two and half hours we’d completed the project.

We thanked Ron, stuffed our sacks with the leftover clementines and continued to Muddy Waters to sip apple cider and continue our conversations before returning to City Hall for dinner and a community celebration.

I walked into City Hall to see even more familiar faces – some of the English Language Learning students that I work with at Burlington High School were in attendance along with a stu-dent I work with from Rock Point. I was excited to share a mo-ment with them and learn more about their MLK Day of service and how that experience influenced their understanding of the holiday. The evening concluded with three performances from African dance groups including some amazing drumming! Overall I think the community vibe was encouraging, accepting, and cele-bratory as it should be on this day of remembrance and honor for a man with a legacy so important for us to continue.

Paige McCormick

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Linking Learning to Life

Burlington, VT

VYT VOICES

Martin Luther King’s Day of Service was an outstanding day for members of the Boys and Girls Club of Brandon. We closed our club, and took members on a field trip to the Rutland Boys and Girls Club. Each club member enjoyed watching the entertaining yet educational film “My Friend Martin.” Afterwards, they competed at a jeopardy game to bring back the important facts surrounding the Civil Rights movement. All of the AmeriCorps members were actively involved in helping the kids to make a Freedom Flag/Quilt that is now being displayed at the Public library. Each participant was given a square of col-orful cloth with the statement, “I have a dream that…” enticing them to show through art of words what they hope for. The kids were also engaged while writing letters to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were excited to share their own stories with their heroes. After having volunteers cook a delicious lunch, we took off to battle it out on the dodge ball court. While at the club we reflected on the day of service and found that many of our students are actually starving for op-portunities to take charge of some-thing, to have responsibility. This will help us to create better programs for our members by knowing what moti-vates them, specifically how they want to serve.

Terri Daugherty

AmeriCorps*VISTA

The Boys & Girls Club

Brandon, VT

Letters written to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Youth writing letters to soldiers.

Dan Shamblin

AmeriCorps*VISTA

The Stern Center

Williston, VT

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Life's most persis-tent and urgent question is: what are you doing for oth-ers?" Although I completely agree with his philosophy, I have to admit, it was a little difficult to motivate myself on MLK day when I am currently a VISTA dedicating an entire year of service. Honestly, I wanted to make it a day off not a day on. But it is nearly impossible for me to completely avoid a task that I agreed to do. In this case I am glad I followed through.

On MLK day I met the well organized CEDO group at the Burlington city hall. After reviewing several volunteering opportunities I decided to help at the Good New Garage. The Good New Garage is a nonprofit car donation program. They make repairs to donated cars to provide low-income individuals who need transportation allowing access to employment, shopping, school and medical facilities. Mechanics being a personal hobby, I also had interest in checking out their garage.

Located in the old north end, I found the Good New Garage to be impressive. In conversations with the a few employees I learned that their VT site receives more car donations then their Connecticut, Massachu-setts, and New Hampshire sites combined. This made me feel good to live in Vermont again.

Although I was perfectly willing to rebuild an engine, the tasks at hand on MLK day were much sim-pler. Together with nearly a dozen other volunteers we washed cars that were ready to be donated. A few other Americorps members were there and several young adults.

On this MLK day I made a connection with a local non-profit which I had interest, I participated in an indoor water fight, washed cars for donation, met other community members and I am still unable to describe myself as a flake. In the end I feel that MLK day was worth my time and plan to volunteer on this day for many years to come.

Kate Tagai

AmeriCorps*VISTA

River Arts

For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day I volun-teered to paint the ceiling tiles of the NECKA Thrift Store in Newport, VT. The project balanced the needs of the volunteers with the needs of the store so that both received a benefit from the day. I can walk into a thrift store in Newport, look up to the ceiling and see the words of social justice painted there. These represent the time I invested as a volunteer. The unexpected but welcome volunteer benefit from the work was the sense of camaraderie. I realized that it is not the depth of the project but the breadth of the people involved that can infuse an experience with meaning. The value for volunteer time is in the strengthened community. This social connection is a benefit that comes after a person has already volun-teered for the task. How can this idea be captured to use in recruiting potential volunteers? Recruiting for a successful event is about making the cost/benefit come out on the side of the organization while meet-ing the needs of the volunteer. A successful event will draw on both the need for people to gain something for invested time and also the need to help. It oc-curred to me that a successful volunteer manager should know how to bring both these elements into recruiting volunteers.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day brought opened my mind to the complexity of what drives a person to volunteer and how a non-profit can leverage that to greatest effect. It is an intellectual puzzle that I will explore long beyond the one day I spent volunteering.

VYT VOICES

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?”- Martin Luther King

MLK Day with The Collaborative

To celebrate Martin Luther King Day our organization decided to give back to our commu-nity in these tough economic times and educate children by offering free daycare and teaching chil-dren about Martin Luther King’s dream and ac-complishments.

While young children have a hard time understanding civil rights, slavery, and racism we explained the importance of accepting diversity and believing in unity. One activity was through the group reading of, “The Sneetches and Other Stories” by Dr. Seuss which is a lesson on the senselessness of prejudice and discrimination. The children were provoked to give their thoughts on discriminating against the “sneetches” who were different because they did not have stars on their bellies. This helped them better understand what discrimination is and what the negatives of dis-crimination are.

During the “I Have A Dream” project the children were read part of the famous Martin Lu-ther King speech and then asked to draw pictures of what their dreams of the millennium were. This was a great way to teach about “dreams” and to recognize such an important person as Dr. King. To end the project, all the kids traced their hand-prints onto black, white, red, yellow, and brown construction paper to represent the various skin tones found across the nation and cut them out. The handprints were arranged to hold hands across the mural of their dreams to remind us that Dr. King joined hands with people of all colors when he marched for freedom.

The children enjoyed sledding, snacks, and indoor games and ended the day with the movie, “Meet The Robinsons”. This movie teaches that failure is ok and that you must continue to move forward for what you believe in. It also showed that you should surround yourself with positive, supportive people. The kids gave comments dur-ing the movie and it was a great way to teach them while keeping them intrigued. Unfortunately, due to weather we had to reschedule our MLK Day event resulting in a smaller turnout than originally expected, but it was well received way to help peo-ple within our community as well as better educate others.

Chrissy Anderson

AmeriCorps*VISTA

The Collaborative

Londonderry, VT

Erika Rogness

AmeriCorps*VISTA

The Collaborative

Londonderry, VT

A Brattleboro area AmeriCorps member sings during the open mic performance on MLK Day

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

Marcus Santos

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Washington County Youth Service Bureau

Montpelier, VT

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service

Annie McShiras

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Community Friends Mentoring

Burlington, VT

The MLK volunteer day in Burlington was a hit! Our CEDO-VISTA team organized the event and they did a wonderful job of coordinating volunteer sites, re-cruiting volunteers, securing donations and food, and publicizing the event to the general Burlington popula-tion. I was honored to be a part of this effort. All in all, 200-250 volunteers served at 30 sites.

I went out with the Housing Resource Center in the Old North End in Burlington and helped weatherize windows in a few drafty apartments. I had weatherized the windows in my own apartment in early December so I felt comfortable installing the plastic sheeting in a few families’ apartments. In the first apartment we went to, we were challenged with weatherizing 18 windows with only 4 volunteers! We were able to cover nearly every window after 3 hours of working together.

The second apartment we went to had fewer windows, but ended up being a challenge for different reasons. Because of the construction of the apartment, combined with poor insulation, there was mold growing around the inside of the windows. We scrubbed the mold off and were able to install the plastic sheeting, but the presence of mold was disconcerting. A family lives in this apartment, with 2 small children and a baby soon to come. The family told us they contacted their landlord about the mold and the landlord had simply nailed a wooden board over the mold to fix it. I told the family that if the problem persists, they could talk with Vermont Tenants, Inc, a Burlington program of CVOEO that helps Vermont tenants. Leaving the apartment, I felt ill at ease knowing that there are people all over Vermont liv-ing in similar conditions with few resources or support to change their situation.

At the end of the day about 200 volunteers came back together for a community dinner. It was great to share a meal with so many people and listen to three local

bands of African descent! By the end of the night many of us from the crowd were up on stage dancing with the musicians! My day of service was a reminder of how di-verse and vibrant the community is here in Burlington. It was certainly eye-opening to partake in direct service and the experience showed me that volunteering in our com-munity keeps us all human. It connects us to each other.

Solving a cryptogram is like decoding a "secret code". A cryptogram is a puzzle where a sentence is encoded by substituting the actual letters of the sentence with differ-ent letters or symbols. The challenge of the puzzle is to 'decode' the sentence to reveal the original sentence.

Marissa Fischer

AmeriCorps*VISTA

Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition

Burlington, VT

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

The key may be found at the end of the newsletter.

For the second quarter of 2009-2010,

VYT A* VISTA Members:

Planned or implemented 17 community service projects, community events, conferences, and programs in which 300300300300 community volunteers participated

Managed Managed Managed Managed 630 630 630 630 community volunteers and mentorscommunity volunteers and mentorscommunity volunteers and mentorscommunity volunteers and mentors

who gave over who gave over who gave over who gave over 7,072 7,072 7,072 7,072 hours of their time to their communitieshours of their time to their communitieshours of their time to their communitieshours of their time to their communities

Procured over $619,912 of in-kind donations Collaborated with 133 community groups

Wrote 50 grant proposals

Increased diversification of funding sources by establishing 48 new funding

streams at 14 Community Based Organizations

Built the capacity programs that served more than 11,962 Vermont youth, 2,059 of them new to the programs … and so much more!

VYT VOICES Page 18

Vermont Youth Tomorrow

A*VISTA Program

Director - M. Kadie Schaeffer

Assistant Directors - Nicholas Nicolet & Amanda White

VISTA Leader - Tara Robinson

Email: [email protected]

VYT A*VISTAs Get Things Done!

Word Search Answers from Page 17:

1. Leftovers

2. VISTA

3. City Hall

4. Volunteerism

5. Plenty

6. Dance

7. Chairs

8. CEDO

9. Flatbread

10. Collaboration

11. Bread

12. Posters

13. MLK

14. Crowd

VYT Voices Winter Newsletter 2010

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Transcript of VYT Voices Winter Newsletter 2010