Looking Back on AmeriCorps Week

Every year AmeriCorps spends one week recognizing the contributions of its service members to organizations everywhere. Now that this year's AmeriCorps week has come and gone, let's take a brief look back at some of the service projects our Mass. programs have been involved in since it started: 

Eggs filled by YouthBuild Quincy

TRA YouthBuild Quincy spent some time this week on the USS Salem helping prepare for the year's city-wide Easter egg hunt. The event brings youth from the Quincy community and surrounding areas to the "only preserved U.S. heavy naval cruiser" on the Saturday before Easter to search for plastic eggs filled with candy by our YouthBuild members. The students of Quincy filled 700 of the 3,000 eggs needed to run the event, and will return next week to finish the rest, and again on the Saturday of the event to watch the children of the city take part in the hunt they helped put together. 

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While Quincy students were busy on the USS Salem, Lawrence YouthBuilders made improvements to the recreation room of the Lawrence Senior Community Center. The facility, which provides seniors with a variety of services ranging from nutritional counseling to volunteer opportunities, describes itself as a place "where older adults come together for services and activities that reflect their experience and skills....support their independence, and encourage their involvement with the center and the community." Lawrence students renovated the center's rec. room stage and constructed a handicap ramp that would make the it more readily accessible to the population it's meant to accommodate. This multi-purpose room sees a lot of action throughout the year, hosting bingo nights, guest speakers, and themed parties; so our YouthBuilders took time to make sure the stage would be able to stand up to the wear and tear it will likely see as more events are scheduled. 

YouthBuild Boston takes "Duct Wrapping 101"

Students from YouthBuild Boston attended a "Duct Wrapping 101" session during AmeriCorps week to prepare for a service project beginning tomorrow at the New England Center for Homeless Veterans (NECHV). This project, a continuation of YB Boston's annual Housewarming Event that took place on Veterans Day, looks to lower the NECHV's annual energy costs by providing them with some low cost, high impact solutions. The initial stage of the project involved the caulking and weatherstripping of 200 windows in the center, and the next stage, to be implemented beginning tomorrow, includes repairing what YB Boston and their volunteer partners from Bank Of America and the New England Regional Council of Carpenters determined was the cause of the center's significant energy loss: their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. 

The project will include:

• Wrapping ductwork
  
• Installing three ceiling fans
  
• Moving thermostats to more appropriate locations
  
• Wrapping condensate lines
  
• Installing heat returns
  

All three projects are just a glimpse of what our students have been up to the past week. To stay up to date on all the latest Mass YouthBuild news, don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter by entering your email address in the box on our sidebar to the right! Happy AmeriCorps Week! 

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