OSWEGO COUNTY – AmeriCorps Week is an annual event which recognizes the people and programs who are dedicated to “Get Things Done.”
AmeriCorps Week is celebrated this year from March 11-17.
“This provides a local opportunity to acknowledge AmeriCorps members for their impact on our area and to thank community partners who make AmeriCorps possible,” said Christopher Metz, Oswego County AmeriCorps program coordinator.
The 2017-18 program year marks the 21st year of operation for Oswego AmeriCorps.
As a national service program, AmeriCorps addresses critical needs in local communities.
Members in Oswego AmeriCorps enhance services for children and families by providing nutrition and fitness activities to reduce childhood obesity, manage youth and adult volunteers at AmeriCorps sites, involve community members in service projects that benefit the county, and provide housing services for economically disadvantaged individuals and families.
More than 900 AmeriCorps members have served in Oswego County since 1997.
Many AmeriCorps members find that serving in the program is so rewarding they decide to serve for more than one term of service.
Elizabeth Larkin is serving her third term of service with Oswego AmeriCorps.
She is currently serving with Oswego Youth Court.
She decided to join AmeriCorps because “I wanted to get involved in the community, and AmeriCorps was a great way to do that! When I first joined, I was new to the area and looking to find ways to get connected,” said Larkin.
She said she is grateful to be doing something that brings about change.
“Our Youth Court program enables young people to take responsibility of their lives and choices, and to take steps to better themselves,” she said.
She encourages other members to take advantage of opportunities “to try new things or venture outside of their comfort zone.”
Members serving this program year in the Oswego County AmeriCorps Program are Victoria Armet, Leighton Elementary School; Ariel Ashline-Winters, Leighton Elementary School; Timothy Conners, Lanigan Elementary School; Stephanie Crisafulli, Oswego Community Christian School; Shelly Curtis, OCCS; Frances DeFilippo, Oswego Hospital; Cali Eddy, OCCS; Tanishae Edwards, Literacy Coalition of Oswego County; Alena Fresch, OCCS; Patricia Fry, Catholic Charities; Shakeemah Hordge, Fairgrieve Elementary School; Corey King, Fort Ontario; Elizabeth Larkin, Oswego Youth Court; Julia Preston-Fulton, Camp Hollis; Theresa Ryan, Fairgrieve Elementary School and Oswego County Opportunities; Danielle Sperato, Palermo Elementary School; Meghan Tice, Oswego County Health Department; and Shannon Weaver, Palermo Elementary School.
For more information about AmeriCorps programs in Oswego County, contact program coordinator Christopher Metz at the Oswego City-County Youth Bureau at (315) 349-3451 or go to http://www.oswegocounty.com/youth/Americorps.html.
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“The charge from PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON in the summer of 1995 was urgent and strong: find a way to take the new national service program, AmeriCorps, off the partisan political battlefield. Make it, like the Peace Corps, a nonpartisan source of pride for all Americans.
After the 1994 elections, the new AmeriCorps program, enacted by Congress with only A HANDFUL OF REPUBLICAN votes, was high on Speaker NEWT GINGRICH’s list for termination. It had been zeroed out in the budget adopted in the House of Representatives.”
To go forward, put it in “D”; to go backwards, put it in “R”.
“The call to ask what you can do for your country became the most remembered and revered aspect of Kennedy’s short-lived presidency. Though small-scale, the Peace Corps, launched by Sargent Shriver, was a symbolic embodiment of that call. In 1961, in sending the Peace Corps volunteers overseas, the president said on the White House lawn: “Someday, we’re going to bring this idea home to America.”
To go forward, put it in “D”; to go backwards, put it in “R”.
But the Peace Corps was not born without vehement opposition. In the 1960 campaign, President Eisenhower derided Kennedy’s proposal as “a juvenile experiment.” Vice President Nixon likened it to “draft evasion,” and others called it a “Kiddie Korps.” Congress had little interest in the idea.”