[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 143 (Wednesday, October 20, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2146-E2147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


HONORING JAMES BOLAND OF WEST HAVEN AND ALL OTHER ALL-AMERICORPS AWARD 
             WINNERS ON THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICORPS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 20, 1999

  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a special 
anniversary for this country. Five years ago, President Clinton and a 
bipartisan majority in Congress created the AmeriCorps program. Since 
then, more than 150,000 men and women have devoted 1 or 2 years of 
their lives to getting things done for America--making our people 
safer, and healthier.
  AmeriCorps is a bold and innovative approach to building the American 
community through national service. In exchange for their service, 
AmeriCorps members receive expanded educational opportunities. In the 
end, Mr. Speaker, it is our nation that wins.
  America has benefited from this service in a wide variety of ways. 
AmeriCorps members have helped to build or refurbish 11,000 homes for 
low-income people. They are tutoring children in some of our toughest 
neighborhoods--more than 2 million at-risk kids have benefited from 
these efforts. They have contributed to the unprecedented decline in 
crime rates nationwide by working with law enforcement to establish 
40,000 safety patrols. And AmeriCorps members in the National Civilian 
Community Corps (NCCC) have gone to the sites of some or our Nation's 
worst natural disasters to provide assistance. There is an NCCC team on 
the ground today in North Carolina helping the victims of Hurricane 
Floyd.
  As part of the AmeriCorps' fifth anniversary celebrating, 21 
exceptional AmeriCorps members have been selected to receive the first 
annual All-AmeriCorps awards to honor exemplary community service. 
Awards were made in the following categories: Getting Things Done; 
Strengthening Communities; Common Ground; and Leadership.
  One of the Getting Things Done award recipients is from West Haven, 
CT, in my district. His name is James Boland. Ten years ago, James was 
a homeless Vietnam veteran. Today, he is getting things done as a 
AmeriCorps member at the Veterans Administration's Connecticut 
Community Care Center--the very facility that took him in off the 
streets and saved his life 10 years ago.
  The Community Care Center, or CCC for short, provides veterans 
struggling with mental illness, substance abuse, or homelessness with a 
continuation of community-based rehabilitation services. James is an 
important part of that care. He developed and oversees the CCC's 
mentoring and buddy programs, and he established and leads the monthly 
family dinners. He also conducts skills building group sessions for 
veterans in the CCC's day program. On top of all that, James works 20 
hours a week as the property manager for four houses for homeless and 
mentally ill veterans--he is also the resident manager of one of the 
homes.
  The CCC changed James's life. He has gone from living on the streets 
to being close to finishing his bachelor's degree from Charter Oak 
State College. AmeriCorps will make it possible for him to continue 
this path of success. He plans to use his education award to go to 
graduate school.
  Mr. Speaker, James Boland is proof positive of the value and success 
of the AmeriCorps program, not only for the opportunities it has given 
James, but for the care and compassion James has given to homeless 
vets. His is not an isolated story. Twenty other AmeriCorps members are 
being honored today. Let me briefly describe them and the categories of 
their awards:


                          getting things done

  Christine Packer was an AmeriCorps VISTA member and VISTA leader in 
Idaho. She helped start a statewide immunization effort that 
successfully boosted Idaho's immunization rate for 2-year-olds from 50 
percent to more than 70 percent.
  The highlight of Traci Chevraux's AmeriCorps service in Colorado was 
the creation of Smoke Free Sheridan. Traci brought together the local 
school district, school-based clinics, higher education institutions, 
faith based groups, the health department, community-based 
organizations, physicians and local residents to develop a program that 
would prevent and reduce the prevalence of smoking among school-aged 
children and their families in the town of Sheridan.
  Lin Min Kong is an attorney who worked in South Central Los Angeles 
with low-income Thai immigrants and helped them turn a run-down old 
hotel into affordable housing with community space for social services, 
after-school programs, and computer skills development classes for 
children and families.
  Toni Sage organized a tutoring and mentoring program at Parkview 
Elementary School in Salt Lake City. Alarmed by drug activity that was 
taking place two blocks away from the school, Toni worked together with 
her students, students from the University of Utah, and local community 
organizations, to turn the area into an urban green space.


                       strengthening communities

  Jack Bridges did his AmeriCorps service in Americus, GA, his 
hometown. He built houses for low-income people for Habitat for 
Humanity and started a reading and tutoring program for the Habitat 
homeowners' children.
  Scott Finn spent 2 years as an AmeriCorps member in Big Ugly Creek, 
WV. In his first year, he worked with community residents to turn an 
abandoned school into a community center, and in his second year, Scott 
helped start APPALREAD, a childhood literacy program. During 
APPALREAD's first year, 82 percent of the children served improved 
their reading scores.
  Tera Oglesby served with the Seattle Police Department's Crime 
Survivor Services Unit. Together with another AmeriCorps member, Tera 
developed the first Victim Support Team for the Seattle Police 
Department.
  Anna Severens served as an AmeriCorps member with the classroom-on-
wheels, a free mobile pre-school program operating out of a converted 
school bus. Her work in raising money for the program and expanding 
client referrals resulted in doubling the capacity of the program.
  Byrnadett Frerker has done 2 years of AmeriCorps service. She spent 
her first year establishing Literacy Avengers, a computer literacy 
program for middle school students. The students than taught computer 
skills to their parents. She spent her second year fighting fires and 
doing hurricane relief work as part of the St. Louis Safety Corps.


                             Common Ground

  Christy Hicks established and supervised a conflict resolution 
program for middle school students in Pontiac, Michigan training 
students as peer mediators. She then worked to expand the program to 
elementary school students.
  Mark Payne is an AmeriCorps member who served in his hometown on the 
south side of Chicago with City Year and Public allies. Mark helped 
develop a mentoring program that recruited young African-American males 
as volunteers and role models for youth in the community.
  During Jamie Lee Manning's 2 years with AmeriCorps, she distinguished 
herself as a leader and team builder who organized a 3-day service 
project to honor and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King. The project 
involved parents and children from the diverse San Jose, CA community.
  Trampas Stucker was a high school athlete who was paralyzed in a 
motorcycle accident. That did not stop him from graduating with his 
class the following year and joining AmeriCorps as a reading and math 
tutor for economically disadvantaged kids in his hometown of Tonasket, 
Washington. He also worked with ``The New Kids on the Block,'' a 
traveling puppet show that taught kids about accemptance and 
celebration of diversity in race, gender, cultures, and physical 
disabilities.
  During her first term of AmeriCorps service, Graciela Noriega and a 
diverse team of AmeriCorps members were assigned to do parks and 
recreation activities with young people in Orlando, FL. When the 
community did not accept the group at first, Graciela created ``Culture 
Shock'' a program that brought a diverse group of guest speakers to the 
community to participate in activities with local youth, sharing their 
culture through food, music, dance, arts, crafts, and dialog.


                               Leadership

  Kyoko Henson joined AmeriCorps as a way to give back to the 
Pittsburgh, PA, community for the support it gave her as a single 
mother who escaped an abusive relationship. During her AmeriCorps 
service, Kyoko organized outreach projects to address community health 
needs, spearheaded clothing drives, served as a reading tutor and 
educator about community services and created a summer youth program.
  Kelton Young did his AmeriCorps service in Fort Worth, TX, as a TRUCE 
specialist, working with young people in gangs, or who were at risk of 
joining gangs, to make positive decisions about their lives. Kelton 
helped to develop 18 TRUCE sites, each serving more than 200 
participants.
  Mason Jenkins was an AmeriCorps member and team leader for YouthBuild 
in New Bedford, MA. In addition to his work with YouthBuild, Mason 
joined the steering committee of a group formed to address teen 
pregnancy. He also helped establish Young People United, a youth group 
that successfully put on a citywide conference called ``The City is 
Mine'', to bring young people together to discuss the issues that are 
most important to them.
  Maria del Mar Bosch did her AmeriCorps service in Puerto Rico, where 
she helped to

[[Page E2147]]

set up training opportunities for America Reads tutors working with 
Head Start students and after-school programs for children in poverty.
  Jason Lapeituu wanted to provide a safe and stable place for young 
people to feel accepted and to develop their hopes, dreams and goals 
for the future. As an AmeriCorps member, he made that happen in Pine 
Island, MN. He knew that in order for young people to be comfortable in 
the youth center of his dreams, they had to be a part of creating it. 
Working with local youth, Jason found a site, planned community events 
that raised start up funds and helped to renovate a laundromat into the 
Pine Island Union of Youth, Inc.
  From the age of 15, Arthur White lived on his own, having grown up in 
poverty in an abusive home. After high school, he joined AmeriCorps and 
began serving with an environmental education program working with 
elementary aged students. With a dream of one day running his own 
environmental education center, Arthur was instrumental in the 
reactivation of the Nature Center at Bear Brook State Park in New 
Hampshire to provide park visitors with an opportunity to learn about 
the park environment.
  Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues in the House join me in honoring 
the contributions of these terrific people and the benefits AmeriCorps 
service has had for the country.

                          ____________________