A New Orleans-area non-profit is marking the 20th anniversary of the AmeriCorps volunteer program with all-night rebuilding projects. The events are planned at disaster-recovery zones from the Gulf Coast to New York City.
The St. Bernard Project began after Hurricane Katrina, and has since grown to help other communities rebuild after natural disasters. It expanded to New Orleans, then to Joplin, Missouri, after it was hit by a catastrophic tornado, then to New York and New Jersey communities hit by Hurricane Sandy.
Co-founder Zack Rosenburg says the more than 50,000 AmeriCorps volunteers in the project have proven essential.
Every single one of the 800-plus houses we’ve built nationwide has been impacted by AmeriCorps," he said. "And they wouldn’t have been home if it wasn’t for AmeriCorps.”
One of the volunteers working at the 24-hour build in the Lower 9th Ward this week was 60-year-old Carol Ramm-Gramenz of Tacoma, Washington.
“There’s no time like today to do service. It matters not how old you are," she said.
She’s worked on St. Bernard Projects in the past, and she enjoyed the work this week, despite the heat.
“Nobody knew each other, and by the end of the night we were all fast friends," she said. "None of us really knew what we were doing when we started, and the miracle happened when, just like now, everybody was doing a job and doing it together and we got a lot done.”
The 24-Hour builds will end Friday, as Presidents Obama, Clinton, George H.W. and George W. Bush mark AmeriCorps’ 20th anniversary.
