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Service team's work is done
Nine young adults from around country spend seven weeks on Fulton, Mason county projects
Sunday, November 4, 2007
CANTON - Nine young people from around the country finished a seven-week project to improve Cuba, Lewistown and Bath last week.
The group is a team from AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, a full-time residential, national service program. Their trip to Fulton and Mason counties was sponsored by the Illinois Coalition for Community Services.
In Cuba, members cleared curbs and repainted a bandstand, light posts and flower pots. Lewistown projects included building a shade and rain shelter at Higgins Field, clearing about two miles of trails of leaves and bushes and planting trees. In Bath, the group helped with the renovation of an old grade school by framing walls and scraping old paint from the outside of the building, patching and repainting it.
The school in Bath will become village offices, a storm shelter, food pantry and satellite library location.
Cheryl Lefler, a community development specialist from the Illinois Coalition for Community Services, worked closely with the team members, who were the third team her organization sponsored.
"It's so wonderful to bring this resource to the communities," she said. "If they were not here and did not do this work, it would not have gotten done."
Lefler said the work in Bath saved the village about $10,000 in labor, and now that money can be spent on more improvements to the building.
The team stayed at two Canton apartments during the project.
"Everyone's been very appreciative of our work," said Molly Jepsen, 23, of Belmont, Mass. The most rewarding part of the trip to central Illinois for her was a visit to Cuba Elementary School, where the group painted hopscotch courts for children on the playground.
"The kids were going wild," she said. "They wrote us thank-you letters."
Member Megan Lecompte, 22, of Galliano, La., said the group was welcomed around Fulton County. During some other projects such as disaster relief, she has worked on rebuilding homes where the homeowners were never even there. She said she liked seeing and hearing how happy her work was making people.
The AmeriCorps NCCC was founded in 1994, and 1,200 18- to 24-year-olds serve each year. During 10-month terms, corps members work on teams of eight to 12 on projects that address community needs. Projects usually last six to eight weeks each and improve the environment, enhance education, increase public safety, address unmet human needs or assist with disaster relief.
Lecompte and her team members will graduate from the program Nov. 14 in Denver. Other AmeriCorps NCCC team members will miss the graduation because they are on a wildfire team currently deployed in California. Response to disaster is a large focus of the program.
"Since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the main focus has been rebuilding in the Gulf Coast," Lecompte said.
More than 50 percent of AmeriCorps NCCC teams will be deployed there until 2010, she said.
Teams also responded after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001; ice storms in Missouri; and floods in Wisconsin and Minnesota, Lecompte said.
Corps members receive $4,725 for their service to help pay for college or to pay back existing student loans. They also get a small living stipend.
Lecompte said she will return home with new skills and an increased sense of self.
"It's shown me what I might be interested in," she said.
Brenda Rothert can be reached at 686-3041 or state@pjstar.com.