MLK Day of Service in Rural Nevada!
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This year in rural Nevada, 14 local AmeriCorps members from Nevada Outdoor School, planned a weekend of activities to give back in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.AmeriCorps members planned and hosted a local nonprofit community services fair to highlight and showcase the services offered in order to connect community members with those who provide essential services in the area. 18 nonprofits were in attendance, available to answer questions, and provide information to the attending community members.
Lisamarie Barnett, Nevada Outdoor School AmeriCorps member, described the nonprofit fair. “All the vendors showed up and were bustling around, arranging their tables and standing ready for the crowd. The representatives were all very outgoing and eager to answer questions and network with other organizations.”
After the nonprofit fair, AmeriCorps members organized eight additional volunteers to help the Red Cross canvass neighborhoods and inform residents about fire safety and preparedness. The outcome was excellent! 300 homes were canvassed in Elko, Nevada and 106 people came to the door and spoke with an AmeriCorps member or a volunteer. In Winnemucca, Nevada, the group canvassed a total of 200 homes and spoke with 52 people.
AmeriCorps member Kara Jensen, shared her thoughts about her day of service, “One of the things that surprised me was the ease I felt explaining to people what we were trying to accomplish with our canvassing efforts. Living in a community that has so recently been affected by house fires made me recognize how important fire safety knowledge is and why our service event was so needed. I was glad to be a part of that.”
Brenna Archibald, an AmeriCorps member also serving through Nevada Outdoor School, summed up the emotions felt by all those involved, “With one day or act of service we may not be able to change the world or the community immediately. However, the main point that we must all remember and I was happy to be reminded of on Monday was to keep serving. With constant efforts of service, as well as hard work and optimism, we CAN change the world. Monday was one step of many to improve the Winnemucca and Elko communities around us for everyone and I couldn’t have been happier to be part of it. I was reminded to forever keep serving and to also set aside myself as an individual. By focusing solely on others and working hard so that other people can be the beneficiaries of our efforts instead of ourselves, that is the ultimate experience and purpose of service.”
Thank you Nevada Outdoor School AmeriCorps Members for your service and commitment to our communities!
Points of Light: The Video
On October 27, 2011, Nevada Volunteers and Governor Brian Sandoval honored outstanding volunteer efforts in Nevada. Click the text link to watch the video. Find out who was there and who were the recipients of the 2011 Governor’s Points of Light Awards in Nevada.
University of Nevada Las Vegas Students Make A Difference
UNLV’s Make a Difference Day efforts on Saturday, October 22, 2011 were a GREAT Success! Over 120 UNLV students, faculty, and staff volunteered almost 400 hours at Make a Difference Day projects with Goodie Two Shoes, Spread the Word Nevada, Project Green: Friends of Pittman Wash, Tonopah Community Garden, and United Way/Albertson’s Food Drives. These volunteers helped give away 1,543 pairs of shoes with Goodie Two Shoes Foundation’s Annual Giveaway, cleaned thousands of books with Spread the Word Nevada to be distributed to underprivileged children, engaged in a community clean-up projects at Pittman Wash with Project Green: Friends of Pittman Wash to help preserve and protect the wildlife and wildlife habitat of Pittman Wash, which is a rare Mojave Desert riparian ecosystem. Students also assisted Tonopah Community Garden with regular cleaning and maintenance while decorating a wall, painting the playground, and preparing a portion of the land for future planting. Other students assisted with the collection over 10,000 lbs of food, 10,000 lbs of household items and clothes and about 3,000 toothbrushes for the United Way of Southern Nevada.
–Amanda Boehmer , Nevada Volunteers’ AmeriCorps VISTA
Amanda is serving as the Outreach Volunteer Coordinator at the UNLV Office of Civic Engagement & Diversity
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- Digging the raised beds at Tonopah Community Garden
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- Making it Beautiful at Tonopah Community Garden
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- Staining Wood at Tonopah Community Garden
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- Book Repair at Spread the Word Nevada
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- Cleaning up the books at Spread the Word Nevada
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- The Student Book Team at Spread the Word Nevada
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- Sun, work, and fun at Pittman Wash
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- Restoration of Pittman Wash
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- Cleanup at Pittman Wash
Join Governor Sandoval in Signing a 9/11 Pledge to Serve
On Thursday, September 8, 2011, Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval came to visit us at the Nevada Volunteers office in Reno to make his pledge to serve. In tribute to the spirit of service that followed 9/11/2001, he encouraged all Nevadans to sign our pledge to volunteer in the upcoming year from 9/11/2011 to 9/11/2012.
Alex Ellison, Project Coordinator, believes that pledging to serve will inspire Nevadans to volunteer in new and interesting ways. “Volunteering is not just cleaning up trash on the side of the street or pulling weeds at a park. Although those are fine ways to lend a helping hand, there are so many more ways people can use their skills and interests to benefit their communities. The 10th anniversary of 9-11 is a great time to encourage people to volunteer because we remember the heightened sense of giving that immediately followed 9-11-01.”
Help us reach our goal of 500 pledges across Nevada. Go to www.nevadavolunteers.org or bit.ly/911pledge to make your pledge today!
Expressions of Homelessness
Nevada Volunteers’ higher-education initiative has worked on Nevada’s campuses for the past 2 ½ years to promote volunteering among college youth. One of the highlights of this effort has been the Expressions of Homelessness poetry project organized through the University of Nevada Reno’s Honors Program by our VISTA, Alexandra Ellison. An eight week poetry workshop was held for the Reno Family Shelter residents with the help of faculty from UNR’s English Department. Two UNR photography students, Jennice Rodriguez and Arielle Murphy, took portraits of the poets to display with the poems in this exhibition, celebrating the moving words of the shelter residents.
