Americorps goes to summer camp
Scattered throughout the Jackson State Demonstration Forest, lies a variety of many remote camps. One of them, north of Chamberlain Creek Conservation Camp on Highway 20, is Camp Mendocino, a summer program camp owned and operated by the San Francisco Boys and Girls Clubs. This nationwide non-profit group has a long history of enriching the lives of inner-city children. Sports, mentoring, and safe socializing can make a significant difference in young lives. However, the San Francisco Club’s Camp Mendocino is probably the only outdoors in the forest experience these city children ever know. It’s a far cry from cement, asphalt, car horns, and sirens.
A camp like this must be regularly maintained and repaired after each winter season. The manpower costs would be restrictive for any non-profit, easily leading to rundown bunkhouses and overgrown trails. Closed for the past two summers due to COVID, this camp was in need of a major cleanup. A partnership between the San Francisco Boys and Girls Club and Americorps brought a team of eight young adults and their team leader to the camp this spring to repair, rebuild, and clear hiking trails. Americorps NCCC, a federal national service program for willing young adults, offers NGOs and community groups the hands-on help they otherwise can’t afford.
Teams take on short-term projects all over the country. For the past seven months, this group has staffed an income tax help center in Seattle for low and middle-income families. They have worked
for the city and fire department of San Rafael, CA. They provided basic English instruction, social interaction, and recreation on Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico for Afghan refugee children. A few recently spent some time helping out at Meadow Farm in Fort Bragg. Others veered off to Quincy, CA for a short while to help provide basic resources to those who lost their homes in the Dixie fire of August 2021. These “side jobs” are encouraged as a way to spend weekends.
What motivates over twenty thousand young adults each year, ages 1826, to commit ten months of time to this national service? If accepted, they will leave home and be trained at one of four regional campuses. They will be assigned to a team of people they have never met and will live with them for close to a year. They will go to places in the country that are radically different from their own geographic area. They will be asked to do project jobs that would never have occurred to them before. Do they come to regret the choice they made? Do they actually develop the essential job skills of today’s world?
Americorps Team Leader Lexi Schultz and her eight volunteers took an hour off from work at the Mendocino Camp to talk about what they have experienced after seven months in the program. Only one team member lived in California. Most of the others hailed from the Midwest and East. At first, they were hesitant to share thoughts about themselves and what Americorps meant to them. They have spent most of their time directly engaged in the details of the day’s work. Now they struggled a little to step back and examine their motives for joining, their emotions when they recalled memorable moments, and how they saw themselves now.
The reasons for joining Americorps were generally the same. “I was looking for something,” many stated. Indecision about what to do with their lives had brought some of them to see that no decision was the worst decision. Some left college for a break in the routine; others specifically wanted community service. Brooke Herhusky from Indiana said, “I wanted to figure out how to do outreach to help different communities. I could look into different careers. It was a good program for that.” Noah Schiestel from Illinois, a recent high school graduate, said, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do in college or where to go. I wanted to take some time to figure it out.”
All agreed that their experiences so far had changed them. They felt challenged by the assigned projects. TJ Carey from Massachusetts said, “It gets me out of my comfort zone being in a room full of people who don’t speak English, and I don’t speak their languages. It can be very challenging. In Seattle helping middle to low-income people with taxes, we saw that we created a very vulnerable position for these people. We were in tons of uncomfortable social situations like that.” Others shook their heads in agreement. In order to help file taxes, they poked their noses into the private lives of strangers.
None of the team members believed they had made a mistake in joining Americorps. All have been impacted by a particular event or place. Lexi Schultz, their team leader from Wisconsin, pointed to “the opportunities to meet people you wouldn’t normally meet. I have connections now that I might be able to use if I return there.” TJ added, “It’s such a massively large country.” For him, he said, “It helps put perspective on things—traveling around to different places and experiencing the different cultures throughout the U.S.” Many of them gratefully commented how they are acquiring intrapersonal skills necessary in adulthood that would help in job searches or further education.
All of them hold memorable moments they will never forget. Some found it life-affirming. Others found it life-giving. One or two described the event as liberating. Tiera Lee from Maryland witnessed the quiet grace of a grateful mother finally having the opportunity to bathe her child. Noah recalled working with refugee children in New Mexico. He bonded with the teenagers, knowing he would never see them again. He speculated, “Maybe one day I’ll find them on the street or in the grocery store. I’ll say ‘Hi, remember me?’ Unlikely to happen, but…” A young girl he saw every day wove him a bracelet which he still wears, and he seems still surprised months later by the gift.
Lexi shared a refugee experience as well. About the children, she said, “I remember being really impressed with how resilient they were. They were so positive, and they’d gone through a lot of things that most of us will never have to go through. They are still happy kids at the end of the day.” She then described a special celebration day on the airbase. Races had been set up for the children, and she and her team stood on the sidelines to “provide motivation and steer them in the right direction.” She then spotted a little boy she had worked with most days. “I got down to his level to wave at him. He ran at me and tackled me in a hug. It is one of the top ten moments of my life.”
Tiera recalled helping the people of Greenville, CA this past winter. The Dixie fire had completely engulfed their town the previous August. It was near Christmas, and residents were still without the basics of life, still living in tents or cars, and needing firewood to stay warm. Children had no personal belongings. A local bank set up a Giving Tree for the children, and parents came by to fill out the wish tags. Tiera said, “I saw that they weren’t able to be just kids. It was quite heartbreaking because these folks were doing their best with their kids, and these kids didn’t have any of the things that we take for granted.” She then quoted Nikki Giovanni’s remark that there is always a person in need and added, “This is what a service-based organization should do.”
Of all the team members, Noah is the one who is already committed to serving a second year. He said, “If anyone is skeptical about being away, I never spent more than a week away from my home. I was very scared to be away for so long. It’s been great so far, and I don’t regret anything. I’ve definitely grown a lot.” The others plan to return home and continue with college. Other team members pointed to the value of learning how to collaborate with others. Dolan States from Nebraska called it “self-growth.” An authentic group dynamic has been a far richer experience for them than any found through social media. An added benefit at the end will be a college education award of approximately $6,000.
Lexi added that they were fortunate to have good supervisors from the Boys and Girls Club. “They are,” she said, “very invested in making sure that this is as good an experience as it could possibly be for us even though we’re here to help them out.” She also commended her team of eight and the support group at the regional campus in Sacramento. “At the end of the day,” she noted, it’s just the nine of us getting through everything together—the good and the bad. It all becomes something we’ll laugh about later.” In about two weeks, they will be heading off to their next assignment near Provo, Utah. The Girl Scouts are in need of preparing for their summer camps.
None of them have regrets. All of them recommend giving Americorps a try. Quinn Walker, Community Relations Specialist for the Americorps NCCC Pacific Region, ruefully calls Americorps “the best-kept secret in America.” Who would turn down room and board, an allowance, free travel across the country, and a college stipend afterward? Moreover, imagine all the people who met and helped along the way.