Campus Corps Connections A Montana Campus Corps publication Volume 3, Issue 1 February 2007 Participating Campuses: Blackfeet Community College Carroll College Flathead Valley Community College Fort Peck Community College MSU-Billings MSU-Bozeman MSU-Northern Montana Tech Rocky Mountain College Salish Kootenai College UM-Missoula Our Mission: Montana Campus Corps is an AmeriCorps program that engages college students in meeting communityidentified needs. Inside this Issue Billings Flu Shot Challenge..2 Upcoming Events 2 SKC Member Mentors Tribal Youth..2 FPCC Team on National News.. 3 Members Generate Funds 3 Bozeman Team Assists Food Bank.3 Memorable Quotes & Tips.4 Getting Things Done Photos...4 UM Alternative Break in Denver...5 Articles in this issue written by Team Leader Adam York. Layout by Administrative Associate Gini Aten Erving. Many thanks to members who contributed photos or great stories that appear in this issue! Flathead Valley Community College Team Hosts Seussville University On November 17, 2006, the Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC) Campus Corps team hosted Seussville University, an annual day-long celebration of Dr. Seuss s work, designed to promote literacy and community service among Flathead Valley 3 rd graders. More than 250 children from seven different schools attended, including the elementary schools of Bigfork, Creston, Eureka, Helena Flats, Smith Valley, Trinity Lutheran, and West Valley. Participants engaged in storytel- FVCC theatre students got Seussed Out for the benefit of the more than 250 Flathead Valley area youth who attended Seussville University events at the college in November. ling, music, artwork, games, and a Dr. Seuss theater production. Each child was asked to bring a non-perishable food item for the Flathead Food Bank, which ultimately provided Thanksgiving meals for 25 area families. MLK Jr. Day Project Reminds Us That Everybody Can Serve The MSU-Northern Campus Corps team announced the winner of their 2007 Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Contest: Maggie Hodges, a home-schooled sixth-grader who is the daughter of Tim and Kathey Hodges of Havre. The following are excerpts from her essay: Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. I believe everybody can be great if they serve the best that they can. Martin Luther King, Jr. served humanity by being peaceful and by speaking out. He wanted a world where all things for his children and grandchildren and humanity could be equal. King served all people, not just blacks, by providing an example of non-violence. Mother Teresa served humanity greatly not by protesting but by loving the people who needed love the most. What most people don t know is that ordinary people can live up to the standards of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa. Everybody can serve and if you serve to the best of your ability, you will be great like Martin Luther King, Jr., or Mother Teresa, who helped those in need. Maggie Hodges, 6th Grade
Page 2 Campus Corps Connections, Volume 3, Issue 1 MSU-Billings Campus Corps Members Participate in Community Flu Shot Challenge Hundreds of Billings community members lined up to be inoculated against seasonal influenza during the Community Flu Shot Challenge. The MSU-Billings Campus Corps team helped recruit 200 volunteers who inoculated more than 6,300 people against seasonal influenza at this year s community flu shot challenge, held during a disasterpreparedness drill at Metra Park Pavilion. Campus Corps member Robin Nephew recruited more than 50 volunteers as a part of her work with the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP). UPCOMING EVENTS February 12-18 Random Acts of Kindness Week February 19 All-Member Gathering, Helena February 20-21 Team Leader Winter Retreat, Helena April 13-15 Student Training Institute, Location TBA In addition to Robin, MSU-Billings Campus Corps Team Leader Maren Olsen and Campus Corps member Danielle Barton participated in the event. The Community Flu Shot Challenge is a test of the public health system s capacity to quickly distribute vaccine or antibiotics to a large number of people in order to protect the health of the community in the event of an emergency or disaster. Salish Kootenai College Campus Corps Member Mentors Tribal Youth to Prevent Domestic Violence MSU-Billings Campus Corps members recruited more than 50 volunteers to distribute flu shots to help protect the health of their community this winter. On the Flathead Indian Reservation in Pablo, Salish Kootenai College (SKC) student and Campus Corps member, Rebecca Longtree, mentors girls in the 7 th -12 th grades at Two Eagle High School about domestic violence awareness and prevention in a Healthy Relationships class. Native American women experience the highest rate of violence of any group in the United States, a fact Longtree, who has been a survivor of domestic abuse on multiple occasions, fully understands. Some of my students have already been in severely abusive relationships with their partners, see domestic violence everyday in their homes, are neglected, have been raped, are being abused, said Longtree. If this cycle is not changed, it will be the norm for their children. Longtree, a native of Seattle, WA, is a fixture for the girls at Two Eagle High School, acting as a confidant and providing from experience advice and solutions. They learn from me, and take whatever they can from me being a mentor to them, or even just a positive presence in their lives, she said. And in turn, they give me strength and pride in my everyday life.
Page 3 Campus Corps Connections, Volume 3, Issue 1 Ft. Peck Campus Corps Program Generates National Media Attention Fort Peck Community College in Wolf Point, MT received national media attention on the radio program National Native News for the health and wellness programs being implemented by Campus Corps members Jake Riediger, Scott Smoker, and Connor Gourneau. The members are working in conjunction with the FPCC Popular Wellness Center to mentor youth and educate their community about steps that can be taken to prevent and manage diabetes. The three Campus Corps members develop and disseminate educational materials, participate in advocacy activities, and act as health and exercise advisors to diabetics on the reservation. They work one-on-one with FPCC Poplar Wellness Center patrons, focusing primarily on youth mentorship and healthy lifestyle education for between 75-150 community members each day (70% of whom have diabetes), and according to Judy Linthicum, Wellness Center Director, they also act as drug and alcohol-free role models for dozens of youth in the community. A national radio broadcast of the story was aired January 16, 2007, on National Native News. The archived story can be heard at: http://www.nativenews.net/. Scott Smoker assists a local youth with exercise activities while on duty at the FPCC Poplar Wellness Center. Members Recruit Volunteers and Generate the Equivalent of $107,013 In Labor and Services During the first quarter of the 2006/2007 program year, Campus Corps members recruited 303 volunteers to participate in mentoring activities and 779 volunteers to serve with various community agencies and on special projects. Volunteers recruited by Campus Corps members served a total of 6,470 hours in Montana communities. According to the Independent Sector, a Washington, DC-based organization, volunteer time is valued at $16.54 per hour. This means that Campus Corps member-recruited volunteers benefited Montana communities with the equivalent of $107,013.80 in labor and services during the first quarter alone! MSU-Bozeman Members Assist 528 Families With Holiday Food Drive to Benefit Food Bank Campus Corps member Hannah Wilson (left) and volunteer, Megan Thomas, helped to collect food for the Gallatin Valley Food Bank during a holiday food drive at a Bozeman-area Albertson s grocery store in November. The MSU-Bozeman Campus Corps team organized a wonderfully successful holiday food drive to benefit the Gallatin Valley Food Bank in November. Fliers were given to patrons entering the participating Albertsons supermarket containing statistics about families aided by the Food Bank and a food wish-list. The Campus Corps members collected 632 pounds of food in just four hours, helping the Gallatin Valley Food Bank provide assistance to 528 families who requested emergency food boxes during the month of November.
Page 4 Campus Corps Connections, Volume 3, Issue 1 UM-Missoula Alternative Breaks Trip Explores Urban Social Issues in Denver On January 9, 2007, a group of UM-Missoula students, led by Campus Corps Team Leader Liz Nysson, traveled to Denver, Colorado for an Alternative Breaks Service- Learning trip focused on urban social issues. The ten trip participants worked in a soup kitchen, a day care, a food bank, and with other agencies working to improve the lives of the poor and homeless in Denver. Students packing boxes at the Food Bank of the Rockies while in Denver. UM-Missoula Campus Corps Team Leader Liz Nysson outside the Food Bank of the Rockies. Alternative Breaks trip participants join Denver Head Start students in an art project. Trip participant Jamie Rogers and a Head Start student share a creative moment. Trip participants had the chance to explore downtown while in Denver.
Page 5 Campus Corps Connections, Volume 3, Issue 1 Campus Corps Team Leader Profile: Rikki Sorenson, MSU-Northern Ricarda Lynd Sorenson (Rikki), Campus Corps Team Leader at MSU- Northern, was born and raised in upstate New York. Her work experiences have varied from hotel maid to Weight Watchers lecturer. Rikki enrolled in her first college course while in her 30s, eventually receiving an Associate s degree in Business Administration from Fullerton College in California and ultimately a Bachelor s Degree in Community Service from MSU-Northern. For a number of years, Rikki has written and delivered sermons at her church in Havre. She enjoys traveling and has lived in Ohio and California, in addition to Havre. Rikki has been married for 30 years and has two grown daughters. Once Rikki completes her term with AmeriCorps, she will be attending seminary in Iowa. Rikki helps refurbish a house at the Montana Learning Center at Canyon Ferry Lake in Helena, during the Team Leader Training in September 2006. Gini and the family camping in the Big Hole Basin, September 2006. Campus Corps Staff Profile: Gini Aten Erving, Administrative Associate Gini is originally from the East Coast, having grown up in Connecticut and attended college in Maine. (She earned her B.A. in Women s Studies from Bowdoin College about 59 million years ago.) She worked for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) at the Pacific Northwest branch in Washington before meeting her future husband, with whom she lived in Alaska and Seattle before settling in Missoula 11 years ago. Gini has three children: Lia (7), Will (5), and Nina (3), who currently keep her firmly tethered to Montana, where they attend a Spanish-immersion school and love to camp, hike, and ski. But before children, she traveled the world, living or studying in Morocco, Turkey, Kenya, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Scandinavia, and western Europe. She worked as a Study Abroad Advisor at The University of Montana when she first moved to Missoula. After years of dreaming of attending medical school and actually finishing all of her pre-med courses, the reality of having three small children hit, and she went on a job search instead. This landed her at the Montana Campus Compact, where she has been for two years, enjoyably immersed in the world of National Service. When not tackling piles of member paperwork or grant accounting, she likes to escape with her friends and get crafty with anything involving fabric, knitting, or beads. A little known fact is that she likes to drop her kids off at school and listen to really loud music in her car as she drives to the office. She also keeps a jar of chocolate chips on her desk at all times; you re welcome to dip into them if you stop by.
Page 6 Campus Corps Connections, Volume 3, Issue 1 Memorable Quotes I learned a lot about my ability to work with others while putting together our AmericaReads*AmericaCounts program. I was able to give my input into how to go about setting up an organized matching system, but at the same time I was able to listen to others ideas. Callee Swandal MSU Bozeman Civic Engagement is taking personal responsibility for the well-being of your community. Billie Reis FVCC Tips for Success I feel like I had a pretty good grip on all of my commitments due to staying ahead of deadlines. I had all of my mailers done weeks before I needed to send them out. Celeste Pace FVCC Communication skills were important when I was in the process of finding and recruiting volunteers for our campus blood drive. I was able to reach out through word of mouth and email to students who would be interested. Things turned out well because I was persistent and also clear on what my needs were. Gerri Seymour MSU-N By dedicating the same number of hours to my site each week, I feel like I balanced Ameri- Corps duties and school/personal responsibilities relatively well. I learned to always be somewhere at the time or earlier than you say you will. April Heimann UM Montana Tech Campus Corps Team Leaders Kat Hurzeler (left) and Seth Quigg (below) worked on a MLK Day Project with Habitat for Humanity in Butte. MSU-Bozeman Campus Corps members collected food for the Gallatin Valley Food Bank in November. Getting Things Done For America The FVCC community gathered Christmas presents for Kalispell youth served by CASA. The Montana Campus Corps team gathered in Helena last fall for the Building Engaged Citizens (BEC) conference, held September 22-24. MSU-N volunteer mentors and tutors worked with Havre youth during a Campus Corps service project. The MSU-N Campus Corps team helped area youth display Christmas decorations during the holiday season.