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Stories from Maine AmeriCorps Members
Barbara Carter, AmeriCorps Member with Aldermere Farm in Rockport. |
Here at Aldermere Farm in Rockport, the farm is just beginning the construction of a huge community garden at a new property acquired last year called Erickson Fields!! The garden will house 30 raised garden beds and produce huge amounts of various vegetables, flowers and herbs that will be given to local food banks, and the local elementary and high school cafeterias. The garden will also allow local people, who do not have their own space at home for a vegetable garden, to grow at Erickson Fields. We have gathered together, and are working with, the community, the Camden-Rockport elementary PTA, Knox- Lincoln Cooperative Extension, AmeriCorps members across the state, area Master Gardener’s and Maine Coast Heritage Trust volunteers to help build this community garden and make it a success for their community.
Throughout the growing season I will be running various youth programs, empowering them by teaching how to garden organically, they get to help plant seeds in the garden that they will later on harvest for local food banks and school cafeterias. One program that we have adopted this year and was started by the York Cooperative Extension and Master Gardeners in York County, is called Kids Can Grow, a program where children attend a monthly meeting at a team site, build a raised bed that they name and raise vegetables for a local soup kitchen of their choice and then a Master Gardener goes to their home, builds a raised bed with them and they raise vegetables for their own family. This program is great and we have had an overwhelming response, we actually have a waiting list!!
We have also started a group called the Knox County Farmer’s Alliance, which brings together farmer’s in Knox County and enables them to communicate with each other and allow needs and wants to be voiced. They have generated ideas on marketing, talked about labor needs, started a new farmer’s market at the Union Fair that will take place this summer and are a part of a regular article in the Herald Gazette, informing the public of local farmers and what they do, sell, with full color photos!!
Jamie Andrew, AmeriCorps Member and Volunteer Coordinator with the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine. |
Graduating from college can leave you somewhat disoriented. I emerged from art school with a BFA in painting, endless amounts of enthusiasm, and a serious uncertainty with what to do next. I spent the summer after graduation at my parents’ house in Pennsylvania, going on lots of walks through the woods and meandering trips to the Farmer’s Market.
After a lot of Craigslist-ing and internet job searching, I came across the AmeriCorps position database for the state of Maine. There were lists of intriguing jobs, from working on local farms to art galleries to soup kitchens. The Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine brought me on board after a friendly phone interview, and the next 11 months of my life was set.
In the time that I’ve spent at my site, I’ve learned a lot about what it means not only to be an Educator and Volunteer Coordinator, but what it means to simply do meaningful work. Working as an AmeriCorps Community Resource Corps member at a nonprofit organization has provided me with incredible insight into myself and what I want from my future – things I never even knew I wanted. I feel an almost familial responsibility to the people and the community within which I work, and every night I go to bed exhausted but knowing that I did something. In a way, I am spoiled, because from now on I will always need to have a job that can give me that feeling.
Emily Fitch, AmeriCorps member serving at the Portland Housing Authority. |
I work with the Portland Housing Authority running an after school Study Center for the youth of Sagamore Village. In my "free" time I work to incorporate educational activities to supplement the learning of the students and present them with opportunities beyond the classroom. In many ways I am a supplementary teacher and mentor for the 70+ students that utilize the program in Sagamore Village. The students come from all over the world and vary in age from 5-20, there are even a handful of Adult Education students that come to the center. I have worked hard to create a safe and fun classroom environment that reflects the pride the students have in the center. They have a ton of love and respect for the space and for us! I have learned so much from the students and can't imagine NOT working with them for another year. My experience with the students has inspired me to become a teacher... after another year of AmeriCorps, of course. This has been, by far, the most fulfilling "job" I have ever had.
I first served as an AmeriCorps member with the Maine Conservation Corps during the summer of 2004. I served on a backcountry trail crew on Saddleback Mountain on the Appalachian Trail in western Maine, followed by a session on the then-unfinished Grafton Loop Trail, also in western Maine. I still look back on it as the best summer of my life. The memories are endless: hiking to work every day, swimming in an alpine pond after a long day of hard work, watching my crew quickly become my family, living in the woods, developing muscles and skills I never thought I was capable of, and seeing my team’s effort transform itself into two beautiful stone staircases that will last several decades, if not longer. To be able to contribute something so substantial and meaningful to my home state was an amazing experience, made even better by the added benefits of gaining concrete skills and earning an educational award to help pay for college. I know I will never forget all the laughter and friends, black flies and blisters, sweat, calluses, and rain—all of which made me a stronger person and ultimately who I am today.
By Sarah Kilch Gaffney, Maine Conservation Corps AmeriCorps member. |
It’s been 4 ½ years since I first served, and here I am serving as an AmeriCorps member with the Maine Conservation Corps once again. Over the years between, I graduated from college, moved back to Maine, and got married on Saddleback Mountain, where my husband and I have been volunteer maintainers of a 2-mile section of the Appalachian Trail since 2007. To this day, I still rave about my time as an AmeriCorps member, and in my current position as Volunteer & Marketing Leader, I get to do just that: talk to people every day about the amazing opportunities AmeriCorps and the Maine Conservation Corps can provide. Through my current term of service, three of my greatest passions (writing, volunteering, and the environment) have come together, once again enabling me to help others and at the same time promote two wonderful organizations that have made a difference in so many lives. For me, this is a dream experience, and one that wouldn’t be possible without the support and resources provided by AmeriCorps and the Maine Conservation Corps.
Read member stories from across the country at www.americorpsweek.gov.