Six Marshfield Clinic AmeriCorps Members Receive the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award

Six Marshfield Clinic Health System (MCHS) AmeriCorps members currently serving with MCHS Community Corps and MCHS Recovery Corps were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award through the President's Volunteer Service Award Program in recognition of the impacts that their service has had for the people of Wisconsin. National service participants who have accumulated more than 4,000 hours of service are eligible for the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which is our nation’s highest distinction for service and volunteerism through the President's Volunteer Service Award Program. As part of the recognition, honorees receive a certificate and a congratulatory letter from the President of the United States.

Marshfield Clinic Health System AmeriCorps was pleased to award the six AmeriCorps members with the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award on February 29, 2024, as part of their annual Midterm Training, where they bring together their AmeriCorps members serving with both programs throughout the state.

The six MCHS AmeriCorps members that were recognized are listed below:

• Erika Brigham – Erika is serving her fourth AmeriCorps term as a Recovery Coach with MCHS Recovery Corps. She serves at Oneida County Social Services in Rhinelander, where she has played an intricate part in expanding recovery coaching services in Oneida County. Erika has spent countless hours developing a resource guide for Northern Wisconsin to assist those seeking recovery coaching services.
• Breanna Showkeir – Breanna has served three full-time AmeriCorps terms with MCHS Recovery Corps program. As a recovery coach, Breanna has helped individuals in recovery develop a wellness plan and provide support through their recovery journey. Breanna served at Barron County Health and Human Services. In 2023, Breanna had the opportunity to share as a presenter at the DHS Opioid, Stimulants, and Trauma Summit.
• Jatara Brown – Jatara has served three full-time AmeriCorps terms with MCHS Community Corps program. She served her first two terms at the First Presbyterian Church Wausau Free Clinic in Wausau and she is serving with ECDC Multicultural Community Center during her third term. At ECDC, she supports the direct delivery of refugee support services and conducts outreach efforts to develop partnerships in refugee assistance.
• Miranda Golberg – Miranda is currently serving her third full-time term with Marshfield Clinic Health System AmeriCorps Community Corps. Miranda served her first term with the Girl Scouts of Northwestern Great Lakes, mentoring and supporting girls to build tomorrow’s leaders. Her second and third terms have been with Marshfield Clinic Health System Office of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (HEDI), where she has focused on improving health outcomes of individuals with social needs by connecting them with available community resources (such as safe, affordable housing or access to healthy foods). In this role, Miranda has also been responsible for training and engaging college students to assist in providing resource referrals.
• Ian Carroll – Ian is an army veteran who served two years as a combat medic. He is now serving a term with MCHS Community Corps program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Office of Sustainability as a Circular Economy Program Assistant. His service includes everything from waste audits and analysis to engaging students in the campus garden program, to minimize waste and create a healthier, regenerative UWM environment for students and employees.
• Cheyenne Rhoten – Cheyenne is a National Guard member who served active duty during the pandemic and responded to multiple events during the summer and fall of 2020. Cheyenne is now serving with MCHS Community Corps at the Badgerland After School Enrichment Program. Cheyenne spends her service time engaging underserved children in STEM programming through interactive activities and games.

Schools of Hope AmeriCorps members complete annual Books of Hope project during AmeriCorps Week

As part of their celebration of AmeriCorps Week 2024, the AmeriCorps members and program staff at the Schools of Hope AmeriCorps Project with the United Way of Dane County worked together to pack and distribute books for their Books of Hope initiative.

“Books of Hope is an initiative that began in 2016 as a way for the Schools of Hope AmeriCorps Project to distribute high-quality books to the students we tutor,” said Anneke Kingery, Schools of Hope Program Coordinator. “The goal of Books of Hope is to provide high-interest, diverse books (including fiction, non-fiction, and bilingual books) to the students we work with to support literacy and help families build their home libraries. The past few years, we have partnered with Books4School to select a great variety of books. On March 15, our AmeriCorps members and staff team packed and distributed more than 2,000 books to over 480 students at 14 Madison Metropolitan School District Elementary Schools. Each student received 4 books to take home to share with their families.”

The Schools of Hope AmeriCorps members found significant meaning and impact on the project for the students they serve, with the reflections of some of these AmeriCorps members found below.

Kyle Cushman, serving at Lincoln Elementary:

“The packing day was as much a day of reflection as it was working as normal. Going through my list of students again made me realize just how many students my team [of volunteers] at Lincoln work with. I’ve gotten so many hugs and smiles [while handing out books] – it’s a reaffirmation of the relationship building I’ve been doing the past six months. The teachers were familiar with Books of Hope and what I was planning, so they were super excited, too! This is a really cool way to honor the effort and relationship with the students in our program.”

Lexi Ramirez, a second-year member, serving at Leopold Elementary:

“[Books of Hope] is my favorite part of the service year. I love personalizing bags to each student and being able to give them their very own books to take home.”

Nick Canham, serving at Emerson Elementary: 

“I had a great time [at the Books of Hope packing day]! I also enjoyed the collaborative nature of the event. It was an honor to help other Schools of Hope members put together their students' book-bags [in addition to my own], and I can't wait for next year!"

WisCorps AmeriCorps members at The Nature Place launch blog to share about environmental education

The AmeriCorps members serving with WisCorps at The Nature Place in La Crosse recently started a blog highlighting the environmental education they provide to the public. Check out The Nature Place Blog to learn more about their service and environmental practices, with excerpts of recent articles by their AmeriCorps members below.

Savor the Natural World – Chelsea Bruemmer

When I was a small child, I considered the earth to be my friend. I grew up in a valley between West Salem and Mindoro where native Wisconsin wildlife was and still is abundant. I remember looking for amphibians late at night all summer long. A whole row of frogs would line up on my parent’s gravel driveway waiting for the bugs that would fly under the outdoor light. They were easy critters for me to catch and hold which I enjoyed because they were typically good listeners, but some preferred to hop out of my hands, bored by my imaginative conversations with them.

As an Environmental Educator, I get to see others fall under the spell of nature’s wonder. When I was walking on the La Crosse River Marsh trails one day, two college students in front of me began to jump up and down in pure excitement. That’s when I noticed a Pileated Woodpecker (who likes to hang around by The Nature Place from time to time) fly right over their heads. I heard one of them exclaim, “I have never seen a Pileated Woodpecker in real life before!” Watching others make a special connection with nature warms my heart… (Read Full Article)

Lewis Jr: A Homeschool Science Origin Story – Emma Lather

My interest in an environmental career started with a live sand dollar prickling my hand during a homeschool field trip when I was 8 years old. As a former homeschool kid turned Environmental Educator, I treasure the opportunity to work with local homeschoolers through our very own Homeschool Science Series here at The Nature Place. In our program, we spend as much time as possible out in nature emphasizing hands-on learning and discovery, whether that’s looking for fungi down the Wood Duck Trail or digging for creepy crawlies in the city leaf pile.

When planning our lessons, we always consider how we can create opportunities for our students that are hard to replicate in a home learning environment, such as playing group games and incorporating specialized resources. We used our bodies to model water molecules in motion during our winter Physical Science series. During a fall Life Science lesson, we used our binoculars, wooden cutouts, and collection of animal pieces and parts to study animal diversity through the lens of Wisconsin native bird species. I even had a special request from a returning student to replay the hit game “Migration Headaches”, in which geese (students) compete for food resources (poker chips) and wetland habitat (carpet squares) while running from hunters (students currently “dead”)…. (Read Full Article)

Eighty Marshfield Clinic AmeriCorps members from throughout Wisconsin gather for Midyear Training

Eighty Marshfield Clinic Health System (MCHS) AmeriCorps members serving with MCHS Community Corps and MCHS Recovery Corps gathered from February 28 to March 1 this year to take part in their annual Midterm Training. This training brings together members serving with both programs across Wisconsin and to facilitate networking and professional development, and to inspire members as they continue towards completion of a successful term of service.

A variety of speakers shared their expertise during the training on topics such as building community partnerships, mental health, public speaking, resume writing, and self-care. Several AmeriCorps members took advantage of the opportunity to practice their own public speaking skills by presenting to their peers on topics related to their service and passions.

In the spirit of service, members came together to complete several service projects which included making fleece tie blankets for teens in a hospital, painting kindness rocks, and writing letters to veterans. Training participants reported that the interactive event resulted in members and program staff alike being more connected with each other and recharged for the remainder of the service term, with one of the AmeriCorps members describing that it was “great to connect and see all the other ways that people serve and gather information from others that do the same line of service that can assist me in mine.”

Serve Wisconsin offering funding to support volunteer engagement in rural Wisconsin

Serve Wisconsin invites non-profit organizations, Indian Tribes, local governments, schools, institutions of higher education, and state agencies to apply for mini-grants ranging between $2,000 and $4,500 that focus on strengthening volunteer engagement in rural areas of Wisconsin, where nearly 30% of the state’s population resides. Rural communities are defined as having populations of fewer than 2,500 residents.

Funding can be used to support or promote general volunteerism, volunteer trainings, volunteer engagement, or agency capacity building through volunteerism. Serve Wisconsin encourages applications from rural communities working with older adult volunteers and youth-led volunteer programs. If awarded, the last day to incur expenses reimbursable by the mini-grant grant will be September 30, 2024.

The application for these grants is currently open. Serve Wisconsin will begin reviewing the next round of applications on April 15, and awarded entities will be notified by April 30. Subsequent applications will be accepted after April 15 and will be reviewed on the 15th of each month through either June or until all funds are awarded.

For more information on how to apply for these mini-grants please visit the VGF page of our website: https://www.servewisconsin.wi.gov/volunteer-generation-fund.

If you are interested in learning more about the Volunteer Generation Fund, please contact Rachel Donaldson at rachel.donaldson@wisconsin.gov.

Service story from AmeriCorps member with the

Green Bay Conservation Corps

March episode of The S-Files podcast

This month on The S-Files, we explored the service story of AmeriCorps member Brittany Arnold, who is serving this year with the Green Bay Conservation Corps. Check out this month's episode below and you can access all of the episodes on The S-Files podcast series website.

Serving with the Green Bay Conservation Corps while studying sustainable agriculture

In this episode of The S-Files, we are exploring the service done by AmeriCorps member Brittany Arnold, who is serving with the Green Bay Conservation Corps. Brittany discusses how she has helped educate the public and engage the community in volunteer service projects through numerous outreach efforts. She also describes the different conservation projects she has worked on so far, including native species maintenance, clearing invasive plant species, and preparing seeds for planting later this year. Brittany discusses how she came to the Green Bay Conservation Corps after working on projects alongside them previously as part of the Brown County Food Forest Coalition. Listen in to learn how she is serving while studying sustainable agriculture and brings her passion for agroforestry to her service, educating people about the plants around them and helping them try different edible plants, like baby dandelion leaves. (listen to the episode here)

Deadline for NCCC AmeriCorps Concept Papers for Projects in September-November 2024 is April 30

The deadline for submitting a concept form is April 30 for nonprofit organizations and government agencies interested in working with an AmeriCorps NCCC team this year between September 13 and November 12, 2024. Information on the application process is available in their Request for Proposal (RFP) for 2024 service dates.

AmeriCorps NCCC teams are 18-26 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.

As an example, the Aspen 2 AmeriCorps NCCC team partnered with Pringle Nature Center and the Kenosha County Division of Parks in May-June 2023 to construct three new features in the nature playground and improve the accessibility of the nature playground and park trails to wheelchair users. Additionally, the Oak 2 AmeriCorps NCCC team partnered with Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Department in May-June 2023

to assist with management and improvement needs within the Ozaukee County Park System and habitat restoration areas by planting trees, removing invasive species, trail construction and maintenance, native prairie and wetland seeding, and completing environmental monitoring projects.

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

• 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.

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