For the last 10 months, AmeriCorps-Vista has been my life, and my road to making a difference...
I was working as a part time naturalist, barely making enough money to eat, but doing what I love, when I heard of a job opening with the Cahaba River Society. The Cahaba is one of my favorite places to paddle because of its sheer, blazing beauty and also because I know the water is clean. I’ve been paddling the Cahaba for the past three years in Lily Season [March-May] and year round above the 280 bridge. It’s become a tradition to go down to Bibb County and see these giant spider (Cahaba) lilies growing straight out of the river bedrock, through the water. It’s a fairy tale setting – so when I heard about an AmeriCorps job with the Cahaba River Society, I Jumped. And I called, setting up a meeting with the current VISTA, and then sending in my resume.
AmeriCorps VISTA is a program focused on helping impoverished communities and the people therein better themselves. It’s like Peace Corps, except you stay at home and get to help people. The specific arm of AmeriCorps in which I’ve been working, OSM VISTA, had the environmental tie-in I was looking for. So it began. I worked for two months to get the paperwork through the bureaucracy and get to know the community, and by the end of the summer; I was already a part of the community.
What I’ve realized in Bibb County, as a result — huge personal growth, ecotourism planning, reviving a committee for a Coke Ovens Community Park, helping put on new events for the river (cleanups, River Ramble: Year II,) promoting more educational field trips- taking kids to the river in their backyard through CRS's Shane Hulsey CLEAN Program, and especially aiding community members in making the changes they want to see – is making a difference.
It’s documented on the web, here in this blog.
Now, I’m ending my AmeriCorps journey. I'm handing the projects over to my friends and starting my new job!! Through this year's work, I've been able to get a full time job in the environmental protection field. I’m the new watershed organizer for the Alabama Rivers Alliance, so I’ll be going statewide. If you have a desire to help- your self, your communities, your state, your river, the environment > then get involved. Try looking up your local watershed group if you live in Alabama and go to a meeting, volunteer with organizations or events you think are cool. See what’s already going on in your town. Recycle, be conscious of your water and electricity use. And if you want some good experience and training, are willing to work for practically nothing, gaining as much as you put in it, try AmeriCorps.
