Each year, AmeriCorps members in Utah commemorate the 9/11 National Day of Service by volunteering in their communities. We are grateful to them for finding even more ways to give back!
This year we also asked AmeriCorps alumni to also tell us about ways they are staying involved in their communities after their service. We are proud to see that they have made service a way of life.
Scroll to learn more about AmeriCorps 9/11 service projects, and the ways Alums got involved this year.
Utah Conservation Corps
AmeriCorps members serving with Utah Conservation Corps (UCC) participated in several projects around the state. UCC members were motivated to serve, even following intense field training sessions!
Cedar City Field Office
36 AmeriCorps service members spent 3 hours on September 10th, 2021 working with the Iron County Care & Share, a local food pantry and homeless shelter in Cedar City. Care & Share has recently adopted the block their business resides on and asked members to help them clean it up, as well as the general area around their property. The members spent the morning picking up trash, pulling weeds, and trimming back plant growth, especially the areas along the sidewalks on the block. Members used a variety of hand tools including pruners, loppers, hand saws, and shovels. Many residents of Cedar City utilize the services provided by Care & Share, and many of those folks come by foot or bike. By cleaning up Care & Share’s general property and the sidewalks leading to the building, the hope is to increase its aesthetic value and creates a safer and more welcoming visit. Even with it being the last day of our 12-day training, our members kept a good attitude and felt they had a part in giving back to the community and the people who reside in it.
Logan Field Office
Logan Crews partnered with United Way of Cache Valley for UWCV’s Annual Day of Caring on Thursday, September 9. UCC Crews arrived early to help set up for the event. They assisted with breakfast and t-shirt distribution and other logistics, in addition to clean-up and take-down after the event. After the event these crews focused on completing their final day of Trails Training.
Moab Field Office
UCC Moab crews partnered with Seekhaven Family Crisis & Resource Center in Moab, UT for the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. 30 AmeriCorps members completed service projects at Seekhaven on September 10th from 8:30am – 11:30am. Crews had just completed an 11-day field training, and despite being dirty and tired, were in high spirits and very excited to participate in this service opportunity. Service projects focused on removal of numerous non-native grasses, shrubs, and trees on the property, resulting in a more natural, clean, and peaceful space for Seekhaven clients and staff. The crews also assembled a new swing set and moved an existing playset into a newly weed-free area.
AmeriCorps Utah STEM Initiative
AmeriCorps members located in Cedar City provided service to support The National Park Services September 11th Southwest Astronomy Festival. The festival featured many programs and activities presented by Grand Canyon – Parashant and Cedar Breaks National Monuments. AmeriCorps members provided young visitors with a fun light pollution activity during the event. On this day of remembrance, these AmeriCorps members taught young attendees about light pollution and reminded them to look to the stars. The stars are such a great reminder of the fact that we must all work together to make our world a better place.
AmeriCorps Education Initiative of Utah (AEIOU)
AEIOU members are spread throughout the state and were encouraged to find local ways to serve. Members assisted with community events, home restoration, park clean up, cemetery headstone cleaning, gifts for hospitals, pantry pack collection and assembly, disaster clean up in Delta, letters for service members, homeless mats, blood donations, making quilts for veterans, road and trail clean up, and cancer patient sunshine kits.
Salt Lake County’s Most Vulnerable Populations Program
AmeriCorps members participated in the Point In Time count, collective data and conducting interviews with people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
In addition to the Point in Time count members who were not able to attend or had COVID concerns created their own service projects. All 15 of the program’s members completed service during the week of the 9/11. Examples of their service include: Food Pantry, BillionGraves (a large repository of tombstone inscriptions), and Geraldine E. King women resource center meal service.
“As a current service member of the armed forces, I tried to focus on the gravestones of veterans who paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country. The most memorable moments of this project were coming across faded inscriptions on the tombstones of several veterans. It was a solemn feeling to see names, ranks and epitaphs fail the test of time because I had a sense that they were forgotten. Yet, I was consoled by the fact that their service seeded a lineage of selflessness that lives on today through the millions of Americans doing their part to serve their country and their communities. I am proud to be part of that lineage, both as a member of the United States Armed Forces, and AmeriCorps.”
SLCO MVP AmeriCorps Member
BYU Family Home and Social Sciences AmeriCorps Program
Members served over 107 hours in a variety of projects. They wrote letters and conducted craft projects, participated in community cleanups, volunteered with charity events, and provided therapy sessions.
Wabi Sabi
Wabi Sabi AmeriCorps members participated in a clean up of local streets and two properties in Green River in preparation for the community’s event of the year – Melon Days. Three truckloads of trash and weeds were removed in the process!
Utah Healthcare Corps
Utah Healthcare Corps members assembled flu kits to be distributed to Utah’s community health centers. Right in time for flu season!
AmeriCorps Alums
The AmeriCorps Alumni Network of Utah asked local alums to report on ways they got involved on the 9/11 day of service. Here are a few of their stories:
Michael L., AmeriCorps Alum
The Delta South Elementary School in Delta, UT had eight dead trees and a few stumps along the playground fence. They have been dead for over six years and the district has not had the personal, time or money to have them removed. Myself and another AmeriCorps member coordinated a project on 9/11 to remove them. We had eight other volunteers help with the project over a seven hour period. The tree were cut down, then the branches were removed and cut into logs. All the branches and logs were loaded onto trailer and hauled to the local disposal location. The trunks were loaded on a large trailer and hauled off for reuse. The stumps were all cut below ground level to ensure the safety of the playground. It was a very successful service project!
Jennifer A., AmeriCorps Alum
Jennifer participated in two service projects benefitting her local community. Alongside five local families, she helped clean an elderly couple’s yard. She also helped make hygiene kits to be distributed to refugees.
Carol G., AmeriCorps Alum
Carol and her husband chose to purchase items for their local school district’s homeless teen youth center (Davis School District). She first learned about the homeless youth while working with the LIAs from Woods Cross High School. Their instructor has performed service for homeless youth many times. The youth center needs everything from laundry detergent to underwear. She and her husband bought at least one of each requested item on their list. She found the opportunity on JustServe.org.
Clifton T., AmeriCorps Alum
Clifton assisted with setting up flags, serving breakfast to veterans and first responders, and park clean up. As a first responder himself, Clifton was motivated to make a difference for veterans and fellow first responders.
We are grateful to AmeriCorps members past and present for their service on 9/11 Day.