AmeriCorps works a home makeover in Barre
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AmeriCorps member Laura Jarvis of Barre, foreground, and her daughter, AmeriCorps volunteer Jeannie Holt, clean reclaimed vinyl siding for installation Tuesday on a home on Ellison Street in Barre, as part of AmeriCorps Week activities. AmeriCorps’ Neighbor-to-Neighbor program worked with the Central Vermont Agency on Aging to renovate the building’s exterior. |
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By Stefan Hard Times Argus Staff - Published: May 16, 2009
BARRE — On Ellison Street this week, a small, two-story house and shed that has been the home of a woman for most of her life has been given a major exterior makeover by a work crew from AmeriCorps' Neighbor to Neighbor program and the Central Vermont Council on Aging.
The effort is in honor of the third-annual nationwide AmeriCorps Week.
A crew of nine converged on the house Wednesday to clean and organize reclaimed vinyl siding, and install the yellow strips of vinyl over peeling and cracked asphalt tile siding, rapidly transforming the appearance of the old house. Some vinyl on the house went over insulation installed by AmeriCorps four years ago, when a crew also repainted interior rooms in the home.
The home's owner, who wished to remain anonymous in any press coverage of the project, was grateful for the renovations, and wandered outside from time to time to inspect the improvements and thank the workers, who took breaks occasionally themselves to chat, drink water and down muffins and cookies made by fellow AmeriCorps staff and volunteers.
Neighbor to Neighbor has five members in central Vermont doing direct service, getting volunteers organized, doing healthy aging programs, and building lasting partnerships with those in need. The Central Vermont Council on Aging often refers 'N2N' (Neighbor to Neighbor) to elders and older adults with disabilities all over central Vermont.
On Wednesday, Jara Jarvis, 39 of Barre, an AmeriCorps member, was joined in the house makeover by her teenaged daughter, Jeannie Holt, also of Barre, who volunteered her time. Holt is soon heading off to join a Vermont Youth Conservation Corps work crew.
Jarvis, who has spent two years as an AmeriCorps member, with stipend and benefits, is nearing the end of the AmeriCorps' mandatory two-year enrollment, but would like to continue helping her central Vermont neighbors, so she's planning to continue as an unpaid AmeriCorps volunteer next year.
"I'm very sad to be leaving (AmeriCorp membership)," said Jarvis, scrubbing a strip of vinyl siding with a soapy sponge. "I'm not looking forward to it. I'll be leaving people that I see on a regular basis…I really enjoy helping people, and I feel like they help me too. I just don't know how it's going to feel. I'm just a better person going to work here…I don't feel like I'm going to 'work.'"
AmeriCorps is a federal program with about 70,000 members nationally that engages in community work in the areas of health, safety, education, and the environment.
Donna O'Malley of Calais was also part of the crew on Ellison Street this week. Through her AmeriCorps N2N work out of the Central Vermont Council on Aging, she can often be seen helping elders with various healthy aging activities, such as fabric and sewing classes at the Twin Valley Senior Center in Marshfield.
"It's great to see people become aware of how communities can support their elders and helping them live independently," said O'Malley. "This kind of project is a showcase for what AmeriCorps Week is all about."
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