Friday, July 27, 2012

Community Connections are Made Over Lunch in Poplar, MT


Post submitted by Katie Wise, Campus Corps Leader at Fort Peck Community College

Thursday, August 26th FPCC Campus Corps hosted a connections lunch to mark the end of the Campus Corps term. Over a deliciously six foot long sub sandwich and deli fixings, community organizations, FPCC faculty and staff, Campus Corps Alumni and members celebrated the year and worked out new ways to connect with each other while the Campus Corps program is on hiatus.

The Giant Sandwich in action

Alumni were also awarded mini-diploma’s to congratulate them for completing the program and thank them for serving the community.

Awards given to Esley Sherman (left) and Michelle Buckles (right)

During the brainstorming session many ideas and connections were made some highlights:

Campus Corps Member Kylee Bushman, Campus Corps Leader
 Katie Wise, Boys & Girls’ Club Director Jeanette Charboneau
Jeannette Charboneau, director of the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of Wolf Point and Poplar Montana is going to work with FPCC’s Nursing department to bring students to the clubs for presentations and activities about the benefits of good nutrition and exercise. She will also be working with Richard DeCelles and Haven Gourneau to create work study positions for FPCC students interested in Health and Education fields, which would include continuing summer member Kylee Bushman’s current position into the academic year.

Debra McGowan with the Ft. Peck Library






The Ft. Peck Library has found more sources of people power to help continue their move, with many of the organizations pledging their 
help.







Esley Sherman has been offered a permanent position at Poplar Elementary, working with students with learning disabilities to find ways to work around them.
In all, it was an enjoyable and productive lunch, and a mark of the continued commitment between Ft. Peck Community College and the Ft. Peck Community.








Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Alumni Profile : Gerri Stiffarm

I thought it would be fun to reach out to some of our Campus Corps alumni to find out where they are now, and to hear what they had to say about their Campus Corps experience a few years down the line. I was able to track down former 2-term member, Gerri Stiffarm who had some great things to say about her experience with the program. Thanks for sharing Gerri!

Gerri (left) with current Campus Corps Leader
at Aaniiih Nakoda College, Ali Graham
Alumni Profile:
Name: Gerri Lynn Stiffarm 
Year(s)that you served your term: 2005 - 2006 & 2006 - 2007 
College that you served at: Montana State University - Northern
# of Campus Corps terms served: 2 as official Campus Corps member




Service Site(s):
2005 - 06: Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line working with America Reads and America Counts Program
2006 - 07: HRDC IV with the Mentoring for Tomorrow Program mentoring students in 4th through 8th grade.


Reflections on her Campus Corps Experience:
"My time with Montana Campus Corps was an exciting experience for me.  I have always enjoyed helping other people and these experiences just heightened my sense of compassion and service to my community. So when I found out about volunteer opportunities with MTCC, I was excited to apply.  My favorite experiences volunteering were the ELF (Everyone Loves Firemen) food drives. These annual events were a collaboration of the Havre Food Bank and the local Fire Department. I enjoyed helping coordinate the volunteers at the beginning of the drive and send them off to the neighborhoods with the ambulance and firefighters leading the way.  Yet, others of us would stay behind and get ready for the tons of food to come in and be sorted.  These events really showed the community spirit as there were volunteers from different organizations, church youth groups, community members, and college students helping make it happen.
Montana Campus Corps has been an excellent experience for me and I am grateful for all I was able to do for others while learning more about myself. I now work as the Success Center Coordinator at Aaniiih Nakoda College where I help students earn their GED diplomas, sign up for college, get tutoring help, and find ways for them to succeed.  I have worked this summer 2012 as the site supervisor through the Jump Start Academy and have enjoyed seeing our students serve their community and create new relationships. It has been a wonderful experience to share my past experiences and the spirit of service with them." 

Monday, July 23, 2012

"What A Year" A Great Story by Hazel Todd

Check out this truly great, Great Story from MSU-Billings' Campus Corps leader, Hazel Todd:

"What a Year"

This Friday I will take my last walk into the Office for Community Involvement at MSUB. I very clearly remember my first day and first walk to the office; I was excited, nervous and ready to go. I also distinctly remember wondering about my last day and how I would feel that morning, and now that I know I have not been disappointed. I walk away from MSUB with a entire new set of skills and experiences that have helped me grow personally and professionally. I was able to do so much, be a leader for a team, recruit and manage hundreds of volunteers, network with non profits, coordinate service projects, engage students in service and the list goes on. The Campus Corps leader role at MSUB is truly a unique, challenging and inspiring position and I am so proud of my accomplishments, the wonderful people I have had the opportunity to work with and meet and the experience as a whole. 

Hazel (center) with MSU-B coordinator Meg (left) and MSU-B
Office of Community Involvement Director Kathy (right)  at Relay for Life event.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

2011-2012 Campus Corps Leader Awards

Our 2011-2012 team of Campus Corps leaders has certainly turned out to be an exceptional group of people, each bringing their unique strengths and talents to the work that they do and to leverage the work of our group as a whole. At last month's Summer leader retreat, we took some time to recognize and celebrate each of our leaders and all that they have accomplished over the year. Here is the list of the 2011-2012 Campus Corps leader Awards:

The "In it to Win it" Award went to MSU's Alex Black for bringing her A-game to every Campus Corps competition and for putting her competitive nature to good use to benefit her community!

The "Team Spirit" Award went to Hazel Todd for her endless energy, for her bright smile, and for her positive approach to all that she does!
The "Unsung Hero" Award goes to MSU-Northern's Grace Milanowski for leading by example, for making impressive contributions to her program, and for never tooting her own horn in the process!
The "Lifesaver" Award goes to Rocky Mountain College's Jill Washburn for her commitment to saving lives when disaster strikes!
The "I Can't Wait to Say I Knew Him Back When" Award goes to Dawson Community College's Jacob Kilgore, who is destined for greatness. We can't wait to see what the future has in store for you!
The "Heart & Soul" Award goes to Fort Peck Community College's Katie Wise for giving it all she's got this year and for triumphing over tough challenges that were thrown her way!
The "Merriwether Lewis" Award goes to Ali Graham for successfully mapping out a new program at Aaniiih Nakoda College!
The "William Clark" Award goes to Stone Child College's Michael Yegerlehner for being our Campus Corps pioneer on the Rocky Boy Reservation!
The "Git'er Done" Award goes to M-Tech's Sean Cochrane for always
 being ahead of his to-do list!
The "Least Afraid to Go Our and Get Her Hands Dirty" Award goes to UM's Shanna Ungate for always being up for an adventure and for giving her members plenty
of opportunities to play in the dirt!
The "Where There's a Will There's a Way" Award goes to MSU-Great Falls' T.C. Knutson for biting off more (than you would assume) he could chew, and then proving everyone wrong!
The "ABCD (Above the Call of Duty)" Award goes to UM-Western's Cheyanne Marcy for hosting a week's worth of events for each National Day of Service and
for always going the extra mile!





Friday, July 13, 2012

Finding Her Home in Havre, MT


This Great Story was submitted by MSU-Northern's Campus Corps Leader, Grace Milanowski


"A Sense of Community"
 by Grace Milanowski 


One thing that I have enjoyed most about being part of Campus Corps is the diversity of volunteer work I am able to do because it has allowed me to fully experience the good characteristics of small town life. Moving to Havre was a bit of an adjustment for me from living in bigger cities my whole life-- but I was instantly impressed with the welcome I received. My volunteering this year has allowed me to experience first-hand this town’s cohesiveness, incredible generosity and willingness to help their neighbors in need. From things like volunteering regularly at the soup kitchen, registering donors for blood drives, helping kids make recycled crafts at one time events and site visits to farmers’ and ranchers’ land, I constantly met people who were invested in their community and genuinely cared for their neighbors. Those qualities of small town living: generosity, genuine friendliness, lending a helping hand without question, and relying on a community are things I quickly learned to appreciate and am certain I will carry them with me wherever I go next. 


Grace (3rd from left) and some of her fellow AmeriCorps members serving in Montana's Hi-Line region

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Dream Big, Read! Montana Libraries’ Summer Reading Program


Check out this post submitted my Katie Wise, Campus Corps Leader at Fort Peck Community College!

I personally have a lot of fun memories of my home library’s summer reading program, it made reading more than something I did at school, but part of my life. This summer I had the pleasure of volunteering with the Ft. Peck Library’s Summer Reading Program, and get a whole new bunch of kids into reading outside the school room. Libraries throughout Montana are hosting their Summer Reading Programs. 


This year’s theme is Dream Big, Read! which encourages kids to consider dreams both as nighttime visions and goals for their futures, and how reading can enhance both of them.  The reading program has children from Kindergarten through Fifth grade marking off the hours they’ve read with stickers with prizes awarded at the end. The goal of the reading program is to keep kids reading and thinking over the summer, retaining the skills they learned in school, and encouraging reading as a fun activity outside of the classroom. Most Montana libraries are participating in the program, and including activities over the summer to keep kids involved with the program.


 At the Ft. Peck Library, Shawn Kennalty and I hosted a summer reading day camp, with mornings filled with reading, crafts, and even a puppet show. We invited Poplar Elementary School’s Summer program to some of our activities and encouraged the students to sign up. We held a dream jar, where participants could write down their dreams to be shared at the end of the program, and had kids share their dreams of growing up (with plenty of Veterinarians, Nurses, Firefighters and Video Gamers). We also put together a special book shelf full of titles surrounding the subject of dreaming, nighttime, and goal reaching for the participants to peruse. All of this was topped off with an awards party with pizza, prizes and face painting.


Most Libraries are running their summer reading programs through July and even into August. The supplies and resources for the reading program are distributed by The Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP), its surrounding activities are run by individual libraries. Although the  Parmly Billings Library and the Bozeman Public Library  both have online information about their events, every library is doing different activities for the program and the best way to find out how you can contribute is to go to the library and ask how you can help. The library may need help with everything from reading to kids at story time, gathering and distributing craft materials, monitoring activities, or even fundraising to ensure every kid gets a prize for completing their reading hours. If your library doesn’t offer the program, you can ask them to join CSLP. By volunteering for this program you are encouraging children to love books and see the library as fun place to go.  

Monday, July 9, 2012

UM-W Enters National AmeriCorps Photo Contest

Each year AmeriCorps members throughout the country are challenge to submit a photo that highlights the impactful ways in which they served their local communities over the course of the year. Photos are evaluated based on certain criteria including overall impact, creativity, composition or technical quality, memorable content and delivery, and expression of this year's theme "AmeriCorps Works".


Cheyanne, our leader at UM-Western took advantage of this opportunity to highlight some of the successes that her outstanding Campus Corps team experienced over the past school year. We have yet to learn which photos were selected to win the contest; but, wether or not they walk away with an award, these photos are well worth sharing with the Montana AmeriCorps community. Check them out!

"AmeriCorps members join together for 9/11 National Service and Remembrance day to further build capacity of the recycling programs. The members hosted a talk on "Why recycle Plastic" facilitated through the local Forest Service Green Team. The finale project of the week, connected local volunteers and college students for a city-limits wide curbside plastic pick-up. The first time ever our community produced several bales of plastic to recycle amounting to over 1000 pounds collected in one day. These efforts directly impacted our community and provided the statistics that generated enough recycled plastic for a collection bin. We now recycle glass, mixed paper, aluminum & steel, cardboard and PLASTIC. The committee even held a electronic waste recycling weekend. Environmental stewards at their best coming together to make the world we live in a greener, one step at a time."





"Local Campus Corps team impacts their community through a series of service projects. Team members geared up to delivery 1000 disaster preparedness bags to their community during March’s American Red Cross month in alignment with AmeriCorps Works week. Volunteers including AmeriCorps members, VISTA members, and local community members persevered through a late March snow storm that accumulated to over 6 inches of snow while walking the streets of their community delivering bags door to door educating citizens on the importance of being prepared for disasters that could strike at any given time. The team won a state wide competition and received a reward to have a celebration, instead of using funds for their achievements the members chose to turn the money around into a donation for the local campus community garden of which a Food Corps VISTA had diligently worked over her term of service to build the capacity of the garden forming partnerships with local schools and cafeterias. The donation was enough to purchase needed materials for summer education programs at the garden."

Thursday, July 5, 2012

One Last Leader Gathering

Our team of 2011-2012 Campus Corps leaders had the chance to get together one last time before our terms of service come to an end and we move on to what's in store for us after this impactful year serving with the Montana Campus Compact. There was certainly something very bittersweet about our final gathering, but ultimately the retreat was a blast and certainly did our best to make the most of our final few days together as a team.


Our group enjoyed the accommodations of the Medicine Flower Lodge located in the scenic town of Red Lodge, MT right at the base of the Beartooth Mountain Range. The final retreat of the year provided the group with plenty of time to celebrate our many successes, to reflect upon the impact that this year has had on our lives, and to enjoy each others' company one last time. 


Grace, Hazel, Sean, & Alex soaking up some sunshine
Additionally, we gained some useful skills that will help us in our future endeavors, whatever they may be. Specifically, we received some guidance in resume building from guest facilitator, Jana Nelson of Billings Job Services who tailored the training session to our unique group and considered the individual career interests of each of our leaders. While we spent plenty of time looking ahead to our lives after AmeriCorps, we did not overlook the fact that we are not yet finished with the work that we have left to do for our communities during our final weeks as leaders. To support these efforts, we focused a few of our sessions on program sustainability and ensured that each leader was able to walk away with some concrete tasks to accomplish before it's time to leave. 


A Campus Corps sponsored event would of course not be complete with out some sort of service involved, and we were lucky enough to be able to support an MTCC VISTA projects taking place in the area. We spent an afternoon volunteering for the Red Lodge Food Partnership Council where we covered a hoop house in their youth community garden, removed rocks from the garden space, and did some weeding. Alyssa, our MTCC VISTA working on the project was especially grateful that the hoop house finally had a roof, as this addition will allow for a much longer growing season that can continue well into the fall months.  
Happily working on the hoop house!

Although we were all sad to say our final goodbyes, we were grateful for this experience, and grateful for the opportunity to gain a sense of closure to such a meaningful chapter of our lives. Here's to the 2011-2012 Campus Corps Leaders! You will be missed!