Feature Story

*By Megan Hill

Lagniappe writer*

For recent graduates Jeremy Simmons and Emily Ulm, going straight to graduate school or starting a job after college seemed like the wrong choice.

“After having just graduated, I wasn’t really ready to go to grad school yet. I didn’t want to just waste a year by doing nothing, or working at some job that wasn’t really going to do anything for my career, so I decided that I might as well try to do some good for the year,” said Simmons, a graduate of Western Illinois University.

Doing some good for a year meant joining AmeriCorps*NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps), a federal community service program for young adults 18-24. Simmons heard about the program when he volunteered in the Gulf after Hurricane Katrina. The program provides members with Red Cross first-aid and disaster relief training, places them on teams of about 12 people and allows them to travel the country performing service projects. The program’s main focus after Katrina and Rita is rebuilding in the Gulf Coast; NCCC has committed 60 percent of its teams to the region until 2010. NCCC’s efforts in the region so far amount to $28 million worth of work, including the gutting of over 2,400 homes and the construction of hundreds of new homes.

Simmons’ team, Green 8, is currently serving with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab until the end of March. Terms of service are 10 months, with projects typically lasting six to eight weeks. Each team performs four projects after a five week training course on one of NCCC’s four campuses: Vinton, Iowa; Sacramento, Calif.; Perry Point, Md.; and Denver, Colo. A second team, Green 1, is partnered with Habitat for Humanity in Mobile.

The team on Dauphin Island has performed a variety of tasks since arriving in early February, much of which is hurricane repair work. They have cleaned and trimmed trails at the Audubon Bird Sanctuary and repaired 150 feet of sand fences with the DI Property Owners Association. They’ve also put nearly 18 gallons of paint onto Sea Lab buildings, cleaned trash on the beaches and removed 300 square feet of invasive species. One important project was planting 600 slash pine trees on the island. The trees were victims of salt water brought in from Katrina.

“We’re doing a lot of painting old buildings to try to liven up the place and make it more aesthetically pleasing,” said Simmons, a math major who plans to attend Arizona State University for a Masters in Education after NCCC. “We’ve also done some planting of trees and other odd jobs around the island such as install sand fences. We’re doing the large majority of our work on the Sea Lab property. On rainy days, we sit in on educational classes and help out when needed.”

The team has also cleaned up debris and trash on Sand Island and done environmental outreach at the Mobile and Biloxi Boat shows. They’ve assisted with marine research by doing marsh sampling with Dr. Rich Aronson’s lab at the DISL.

The DISL staff is thankful for the work done by the team, which includes some repair work accumulated over time at the lab.

“This is a wonderful group of young people who are contributing to their environment, to their planet, one small project at a time. They aren’t just talking the talk; they are walking the walk. We are delighted to have their help in doing environmental work here on the Gulf Coast,” said Dr. John Dindo, Interim Director of the DISL.

Ulm’s team, Green 1, works with Mobile’s Habitat for Humanity chapter. The team is learning many aspects of construction, including roofing, framing, flooring and painting. Their training came ahead of over a hundred volunteers, which they are now leading. Since arriving in mid-February, the team has worked on five different houses, including preparation work for four others.

“For the past weeks we’ve been learning the tricks of the trade in preparation to lead 118 volunteers this week,” said Ulm, a college graduate from Illinois.

The NCCC team has been indispensable to Habitat, said construction site supervisor Hugh McWhorter.

“With the amount of NCCC teams we’ve had it’s allowed us to be where we are in the building process,” he said. Used to build five houses a year before Katrina. Now doing construction on new homes six days a week. “I don’t know how to do it justice. They’re just fantastic. They’ve done an outstanding job in helping pursue the Habitat for Humanity dream. They help make it happen.”

Habitat was building about five houses a year but is now pouring four slabs a month. This growth started before Katrina but “Katrina made the need greater,” said Brenda Lawless, executive director of the Mobile County affiliate. Habitat has built over 1,000 houses on the Gulf Coast since the hurricanes of 2005, many with the work of NCCC. “They have been absolutely amazing,” said Lawless of her NCCC teams. “They don’t just come to work, they provide leadership. It’s been a godsend.” The teams will be leading around 200 volunteers at certain points this month as college and church groups flock to the Gulf Coast for alternative spring break.

It’d be hard to sustain the building and lead the volunteers without the help of NCCC, Lawless said. “The future of Habitat for Humanity is in our youth. Eliminating substandard housing from the world is not going to be done with people my age in my lifetime. It will happen with our youth. AmeriCorps is the way to do that.”

Ulm has found the work rewarding. “I enjoy getting to see the homeowners move into their homes and realizing that Habitat and NCCC has built the homes they’re moving into,” she said. “It’s been interesting to see the houses from start to finish and learn more about construction. I came into this with little knowledge about what goes into construction. There are so many details I took for granted.”

Ulm, like Simmons, was drawn to NCCC after college. She first read about the program in her hometown newspaper. “Service has always been a really appealing thing to me and I wanted to travel and experience non-profit work. I wasn’t really sure what to do after college.”

AmeriCorps*NCCC awards corps members with a $4,725 education award upon completion of the program. Members can use this for college or graduate school tuition, or to pay off past federal loans. The also receive a living stipend and health care, and all travel and living expenses are paid. Projects range from disaster relief to trail building, invasive species removal, tutoring, helping low-income families with their tax returns and wild land firefighting and prevention. The program lasts for 10 months, during which corps members complete at least 1,700 hours of service.

At the beginning of April, both Green 1 and Green 8 will leave the area for their next projects, taking with them new skills and the knowledge that they have helped rebuild the Gulf Coast.

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