Green Bay Conservation Corps hosts multiple projects on Earth Day to engage the local community

The AmeriCorps members and staff with the Green Bay Conservation Corps (GBCC) spent Earth Day 2023 leading volunteers across multiple sites and participating in large community-wide events. These events brought out hundreds of volunteers, including Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich and multiple local alderpersons.

In the morning, the GBCC AmeriCorps members helped with two large events in Green Bay. Some of them held an educational table at the Earth Day Celebration hosted by the Salvation Army Kroc Center, which included volunteers planting 4,000 plugs for a pollinator garden. At the same time, other AmeriCorps members partnered with the Baird Creek Preservation Foundation at their Earth Day event, where nearly 300 volunteers helped remove invasive buckthorn, clean up the creek, spread native seeds, and plant trees.

That afternoon, the GBCC AmeriCorps members hosted five events where community members could volunteer to help make a difference through service.

• Newberry Conservancy – Community volunteers, including Mayor Genrich and his family, joined GBCC AmeriCorps members to remove numerous large bags of garbage from the Newberry Conservancy, an important greenway helps keep local groundwater clean and safe because it helps filter and recycle stormwater and runoff.
• Ken Euers Nature Area – Community volunteers joined GBCC AmeriCorps members to clean up the shoreline of this important wetland. Ken Euers is one of the important stopover sites for migrating birds. Volunteers removed several large bags of garbage and tires from the site, with District 10 Alder, Mark Steuer, joining the efforts to clean up the park.
• He-Nis-Ra Park – Local community members joined GBCC AmeriCorps members to remove invasive garlic mustard from the oak savannah habitat at He-Nis-Ra Park, with Green Bay Parks Deputy Director James Andersen and family joining in the effort.
• Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary Cleanup – This event featured a partnership with UW-Green Bay, which partnered with GBCC for their campus day of service. Volunteers removed numerous pounds of invasive plants and cleaned up any garbage that they came across.
• Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary Pollinator Nesting Workshop – GBCC AmeriCorps members hosted a workshop for the community to learn about pollinator nesting habitats where attendees learned how to create two different types of nesting habitats for various species of pollinators. Event participants, including District 11 Alder Melinda Eck and her family, left the workshop with a nesting habitat of their own, with many attendees donating their pollinator habitats back to the Green Bay Conservation Corps for them to install in local parks.

Media coverage of Green Bay Conservation Corps Earth Day events

• Fox 11 News – Green Bay Conservation Corps celebrates its first Earth Day
• WGBA NBC 26 – Variety of events held to celebrate Earth Day in Northeast Wisconsin

PASS AmeriCorps members participate in Earth Day project at Troy Farm

To give back to their local community for Earth Day, AmeriCorps members and staff from Partners for After School Success (PASS) participated in a service project at Troy Farm, which is a vegetable production and education project of Rooted. They were joined that morning by some of Serve Wisconsin’s staff members to move and spread compost to prepare one of their fields for planting. 

PASS AmeriCorps member Carmen Lynch explained, "today we had the opportunity to help out at Troy Farm. We spread compost soil and removed certain materials they had used in previous gardening seasons.” She then reflected on the experience, saying, “I think it's really important to help out the local community. I think when we think about Earth Day, a lot of times, we think about it from a broader scale, but there are so many opportunities within Madison to help out, especially great organizations like this one that really give back to our city.”

The project not only gave them an opportunity to give back to the community but also a chance to support some of the projects they will be doing with their students during their service. After completing the project, Carmen and some of her fellow AmeriCorps members brought some of the plants sprouted in the greenhouse at Troy Farm back to gardens they will help maintain at their host sites, providing future learning opportunities for their students.

Sixteenth Street Community HealthCorps and

Milwaukee Christian Center - YouthBuild complete

joint street cleanup in honor of Earth Day

When looking to organize an Earth Day project for her AmeriCorps members, Sixteenth Street Community HealthCorps program director Aisha Courson looked just down the street to the AmeriCorps members with Milwaukee Christian Center (MCC) - YouthBuild for a partner to complete a neighborhood cleanup. With their programs located a mere two blocks apart, coming together for Earth Day was a great way for them to both positively impact their local community. During their project, the AmeriCorps members and staff from Sixteenth Street and MCC YouthBuild walked up and down National Avenue and the surrounding blocks picking up trash in honor of Earth Day.

PASS AmeriCorps members travel to St. Louis

during spring break for joint service project with

other AmeriCorps teams

Photos by PASS AmeriCorps Member, Jude Wagner

While the students they serve in the Madison Metropolitan School District were out of school on spring break, some of the AmeriCorps members with Partners for After School Success (PASS) traveled to St. Louis, MO to embark on a four-day service trip. The five PASS AmeriCorps members and program director that participated in the project partnered with an AmeriCorps NCCC team and AmeriCorps St. Louis to assist with an ongoing project at Greenwood Cemetery, a historic African American cemetery located in Ferguson, MO.  

During the trip, PASS AmeriCorps members worked with the other groups to spread mulch along the main road through the cemetery. They spent many long hours cutting invasive honeysuckle, cutting grapevine, removing vegetative debris, and clearing brush. This service helped support a larger effort by AmeriCorps St. Louis, which has been volunteering at Greenwood Cemetery over the last few years to uncover headstones and restore the public green space by removing overgrown, vegetative brush and debris that had overtaken the cemetery after years of neglect.

While completing their service, the PASS AmeriCorps members learned about the history of Greenwood Cemetery from project organizer Raphael Morris, including his personal account of uncovering the headstones of his family members while volunteering in the cemetery. Raphael shared, “‘The cemetery is over 32 acres, with 50,000 burials that have taken place here. The cemetery is severely overgrown, and we are trying to restore it to its natural beauty. We do have the burial site of Harriet Scott, Dred Scott’s wife. We have buffalo soldiers, slaves buried here…Spanish-American war veterans, and World War I (veterans).You name it, we’ve got it out here.”

While reflecting on the trip together, PASS AmeriCorps members shared that serving in the cemetery was meaningful and it brought them closer as a team. They enjoyed working outside and connecting with other AmeriCorps members from different programs, with it being especially impactful to learn from Raphael and understand the history of Greenwood Cemetery while completing the project.  

DPI Farm to School AmeriCorps members support installation of 29 hydroponic towers to support students in Howard-Suamico School District

The Howard-Suamico School District recently installed 29 hydroponic towers to grow produce for student meals. AmeriCorps members with the Department of Public Instruction AmeriCorps Farm to School Program are supporting the project. This culminated a two-year effort that began with discussions at the 2021 Health and Hunger Summit and continued through a collaboration between Farm to School AmeriCorps members, the district’s nutrition partner, and a grant writer with the district to apply for two separate grants to fund the project. This February, Howard-Suamico School District received a $146,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a $58,000 grant for the project from U.S. Venture and the Schmidt Family Foundation.

These hydroponic towers will help provide roughly 7,800 pounds of lettuce for the school meal programs, roughly one-third the amount the district uses yearly. Each tower is expected to produce approximately 25 pounds of lettuce monthly, enough for 81,000 salads each year. This will guarantee a more reliable and closer supply for much of their lettuce, which typically has to be shipped from Arizona or California, helping to alleviate some of the issues surrounding supply chains, inflation, and environmental impacts. 

Additionally, the hydroponic towers will be integrated into the student's science classes and Farm to School nutrition lessons. This includes the implementation by the district of curriculum across grade levels that includes agriculture and sustainable growing practices. Hydroponics can potentially use 10% of the water compared to traditional agricultural methods. As part of this effort, students are already involved with testing the pH levels of the water used to grow the lettuce and helping to monitor the growth of the plants.

The project will also help to get students interested in eating leafy greens and other produce as part of nutrition education, building upon research indicating that when children help grow fruits and vegetables, they are more willing to try and eat more kinds of produce. "If the students partake in making it, then they want to eat it, and that's what happens when you open (the tower garden) up," said DPI Farm to School AmeriCorps member David Schneider. "The first thing they're going to ask is, 'Can I eat a piece?' And they'll never ask, 'Can I have a piece of lettuce?' at home, but they will off the tower."

Media Coverage of Installation of Hydroponic Towers

• Green Bay Press Gazette - 8,000 pounds of lettuce for 80,000 salads: Howard-Suamico Schools grows greens in class

Serve Wisconsin welcomes two new staff members

Volunteer Generation Fund Program Officer Rachel Donaldson leads our efforts to support volunteerism and practices to increase volunteer recruitment and retention and disaster response efforts, including the Wisconsin AmeriCorps Disaster Team. Prior to starting at Serve Wisconsin, Rachel was the Director of United Way of Dane County’s 211 Program. 211 is a free telephone number providing access to local community services like physical and mental health resources; housing, utility, food, and employment assistance; and suicide and crisis interventions. Before managing 211, Rachel was a Peace Corps volunteer, serving in Togo in West Africa, focusing on Girl's Education and Empowerment and Natural Resource Management. Rachel is a proud alum of UW-Madison and loves the Badgers. When Rachel is out of the office, she can be found baking, hiking with her husband and two sons, and unplugging at their cabin in the Driftless region. 

Anna Zoellner, Senior Auditor, will draw upon her years of experience as an auditor and financial/tax analyst to assist AmeriCorps programs. In this position, Anna will conduct federal expenditure reviews of the AmeriCorps program and Serve Wisconsin grantees, conduct financial and administrative risk management reviews during the grant application process, and provide training and technical assistance services to AmeriCorps program managers in the requirements of grant accounting. Before joining Serve Wisconsin in April 2023, Anna spent several years in public accounting, working primarily with non-profit and low-income housing clients and in the private financial sector. Anna is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner. Anna enjoys baking, climbing, playing piano, and hiking with friends when she is not in the office.

Serve Wisconsin offering mini-grants through

Volunteer Generation Fund for volunteer trainings,

days of service, and disaster simulations

Serve Wisconsin is inviting agencies to apply for up to $4,000 in mini-grants to promote volunteer trainings, days of service, and disaster simulations to be held on or before September 30, 2023. Non-profit and public organizations in Wisconsin are eligible to apply, including volunteer centers, school districts, community colleges, faith-based organizations, universities, local governments, and other tax-exempt agencies.

The last day to incur expenses reimbursable by these mini-grants is September 30, 2023. As part of these grants through the Volunteer Generation Fund, organizations will have a 1:1 match requirement for all funds requested. For example, if you request $4,000 in grant funds, you must provide $4,000 in match funds, including in-kind contributions.  

This is a rolling application, with applications considered as they are submitted and the application process closing when the remaining grant funds are awarded.

Please contact Rachel Donaldson at rachel.donaldson@wisconsin.gov with questions about the mini-grants and to begin the application process.

Serve Wisconsin hosting Introduction to Disaster Operations training for AmeriCorps members on May 12

Serve Wisconsin will hold an Introduction to Disaster Operations training for AmeriCorps members on May 12 in La Crosse, WI. Members will learn basic disaster operations, including site safety and personal protective equipment (PPE), muck and gut operations, and debris management.

This training is open to all AmeriCorps members and will be the culminating training for those currently participating in the Wisconsin AmeriCorps Disaster Team. To be eligible to participate, AmeriCorps members must complete two online courses from FEMA in advance of the training. 

To complete the courses, AmeriCorps members should

• Create a FEMA Student Identification Number at https://cdp.dhs.gov/femasid
• Go to https://training.fema.gov/nims/ to complete the required trainings
• Complete IS-700.B – An Introduction to the National Incident Management System
• Complete IS-100.C – Introduction to the Incident Command System
• After successfully completing the course exams, send your completed course certificates to Rachel Donaldson at rachel.donaldson@wisconsin.gov

Please contact Rachel Donaldson at rachel.donaldson@wisconsin.gov if you would like to attend or if you have any questions regarding the training.

Deadline for NCCC AmeriCorps Concept Papers is May 2 for projects in September-November or October-December

AmeriCorps NCCC teams are 18-24 year-olds traveling regionally to help communities meet their critical needs by completing projects that typically last 6-8 weeks. NCCC partners with a variety of nonprofit organizations, government entities (federal, state, or local), educational institutions, neighborhood associations, Native American Tribal Councils, and community-based or faith-based organizations to complete projects that address compelling community needs. These projects address five main service areas: natural and other disasters, energy conservation, environmental stewardship and conservation, infrastructure improvement, and urban and rural development.

Nonprofit organizations and government agencies interested in working with an AmeriCorps NCCC team either between September 15 and November 7 or between October 19 and December 15 need to submit a concept form by May 2. Information on the application process for these upcoming periods is available in their Request for Proposal (RFP) for 2023 service dates.

For those interested in taking an active role in promoting national service and volunteerism in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin National and Community Service Board has a current or pending vacancy for board members for the following appointment type:

• A representative of business
• A representative of local government
• A representative of local labor

Those interested in serving must complete an application to the governor for the appointment. The online application for a board position can be found HERE, with additional information on the application process found at Apply to Serve - Governor Tony Evers. If you are interested in serving on the board and have any questions, please contact Serve Wisconsin Executive Director Jeanne Duffy at jeanne.duffy@wisconsin.gov.