Story submitted by 2021-22 WSC AmeriCorps member Kellee B. My name is Kellee, and I am an AmeriCorps member serving at the Seattle office of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). My role as the Habitat Stewards Program Coordinator is to educate and empower community members by supporting our education programs like Garden for Wildlife and […]
Category Archives: Stories of Service
Marine Education
My name is Holly Weinstein and I’m the AmeriCorps Volunteer Program Educator at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. My service has many facets including helping to manage our center’s volunteer program, delivering educational programs and information to a variety of audiences and coordinating marine mammal stranding response in my area. This story begins the […]
Unique produce
I’m happy to show up at the farm because I know someone will enjoy fresh food they otherwise wouldn’t because of our efforts. Given how many people are struggling right now, this service is more important now than ever!
Overcoming barriers
I end my service with a complex array of feelings owing to the sad upheaval this pandemic has unleashed. Rising to the sudden unexpected challenges has proven no simple task in this line of service, though the positive developments we have managed to make are extremely rewarding and give hope for further adoption of distance teaching methods.
Adapting to a new landscape
Though my service term has not looked quite how I thought it would due to restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been able to contribute to a valuable program that will thrive in the future thanks to the innovative and adaptive ability of our team to create a framework that will serve for years to come.
Fire Ecology & Restoration
This quarter of my term was all about fire. A great strategy for invasive species removal and native species recruitment is to burn a section of prairie. I spent my time cutting fire line and mowing burn breaks in preparation for prescribed burns on the prairies.
Distance learning
My name is Annay, and I am an Americorps member serving at Edison Elementary School in Walla Walla, Wa through Washington Service Corps. Unfortunately because of Covid-19, we had to shut down the schools! As I saw my students come by the school for lunches and homework we would talk about how they were managing […]
Nature goes virtual
The usual duties for my position (before the pandemic) included animal care, volunteer coordination, mentoring at-risk youth, and helping pre-school classes who visit the farm. Most of these responsibilities required in-person contact with our community, so after the pandemic, a lot of those responsibilities changed.
Maintaining food security
A project born out of World Relief’s Resiliency Program, “Paradise Parking Plots Community Garden” exists as green space to empower refugees, immigrants and the local community to improve food access, build community and foster economic independence.
Supporting students through COVID-19
I was able to contribute to the community by helping pack and distribute the meals. I even planned a Spirit week for the Toppenish School district in the hopes of helping the kids feel a little back to normal and to show them that even though school is out, we can still show our Wildcat Spirit while social distancing at the same time.