Green Bay Conservation Corps AmeriCorps members help install native plant garden at Perkins Park as part of plan to create a pollinator corridor across Green Bay

The AmeriCorps members and staff with the Green Bay Conservation Corps (GBCC) invited the public to join the “muddy hands club” and volunteer alongside them at a native garden project in Perkins Park on June 20. Despite the rain that fell throughout the day, they were joined by several volunteers, and planted 3,000 native plants to help attract several different insects that act as pollinators.

Green Bay Conservation Corps program director Maria Otto described that the garden "is what we are calling a sun garden…All of the plants getting planted are more of the warm colors when they bloom…the yellow, the reds, the white, to make it look and resemble the sun," Detailing the role the garden will hopefully have, she explained that “we have pollinators: bees, butterflies, ants, wasps, everything. They come out and are active at different times of the year, so we need to have food sources and pollen sources throughout the whole year."

The “sun garden” in Perkins Park is part of a larger plan to create a pollinator corridor by building native gardens across Green Bay at more of the roughly 70 parks across the city. Maria Otto explains that by creating the gardens, GBCC and other organizations aim to "try to connect a corridor, so we are able to have the pollinators cross through the city safely, and have habitats that they can go to and thrive."

For individuals interested in helping with this effort in Green Bay, their next garden installation looking for volunteers will be at Danz Park on July 11. Potential volunteers can express interest, receive additional details, and fill out a volunteer waiver in advance of the project.

Media Coverage of Perkins Park Native Plant Garden Installation

• WLUK FOX 11 - Pollinator-friendly native garden planted at Perkins Park in Green Bay

Recent Graduate Supported by Two AmeriCorps Programs along their Academic Journey while also Serving and Providing Mentorship to Other Students

Sherlean Roberts graduated this spring with three undergraduate degrees from Marquette! Her college experience was significantly impacted by two Wisconsin AmeriCorps programs, College Possible Wisconsin and Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee (BGCGM) - Club Corps.

While a high school student, Sherlean participated in the College Possible AmeriCorps program, which helped her navigate the college application process. She continued working with a College Possible College Coach while a student at Marquette University. Sherlean explained that “I wanted someone who would be in my corner, who had gone to college…College Possible has impacted me by allowing me to utilize the space where people like me can thrive.” She described her experience working with her most recent coach and the support system the program provided, reflecting that “my relationship with Millia has been the best. College Possible has helped me through my time in college with continuous support, reminding me what is needed for the next school year, and helping me create a plan.”

In addition to participating in programming through College Possible, Sherlean was also a student in the Graduation Plus program supported by AmeriCorps members with Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, which provides mentorship and guidance from the early stages of the college application process through college graduation. Not only was she assisted by the program while she was in high school, she began serving as an AmeriCorps member with their program while in college. While a student at Marquette, she served four AmeriCorps terms with BGCCM – Club Corps, providing support and mentorship for other students along their academic journeys as she had received along her own path to graduation.

Sherlean described that “growing up, I never had anyone around me who had a college degree,” which made the mentoring she received and is helping to provide so valuable in her eyes. Sherlean reflected that “obtaining a college degree means the world to me; I never imagined graduating, let alone with three bachelor’s degrees.”

Articles and Podcast Episodes about Sherlean

• College Possible - Meet Sherlean: Triple Degree Graduate and Future PhD Student
• The S-Files Podcast (interview with Sherlean about service) - Building Connections with Graduation Plus Students with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee

Spring Gardens, Community Science, and Migrating Birds

Blog Posts from WisCorps AmeriCorps members

The AmeriCorps members serving with WisCorps at The Nature Place in La Crosse maintain a blog highlighting the environmental education they provide to the public. Check out excerpts of recent articles by their AmeriCorps members below and visit The Nature Place Blog to learn more about their service and environmental practices.

Digging In: From Weeds to Seeds, Prepping the Garden for Spring - Mace Thomson

Every year as the temperature begins to rise, so does the excitement of gardeners who have been patiently waiting to get their hands dirty again. We know that feeling well at The Nature Place. However, before planting begins, there’s plenty of prep work to do. Before we begin to look into the garden itself, we plan what produce we want to grow, and from that we decide what to start early from seed...

We offer garden volunteer hours every Thursday morning starting at 9am. This year, spring brought heavy rains which meant our gardens were full of grasses and weeds. We went to work pulling the large weeds we saw, but as every gardener knows, you’ll never get them all, especially with just a few people on the job. Thankfully, a UW-La Crosse recreational therapy class came and gave us a couple of hours of their time. We had people tilling the in-ground garden beds to get rid of weeds. redefine edges, and prepare the soil for planting. We had others trimming dead ends off of our raspberry bushes, making them look fresh and healthy again, and many others digging out weeds. Many hands truly make light work and our in-ground garden beds were ready for planting...

We are still in the planting stage, with many of our early planted veggies taking off and others still being actively planted. It’s truly heartwarming to see how generous our friends and the community have been in contributing to the garden and helping to maintain it. This community spirit is one reason we are so excited to put produce in our free produce bin on the north side of the garden fence. Anyone walking by can take home produce from the free bin. Seeing our garden grow and knowing it benefits others is what makes all the hard work worthwhile. (Read Full Article)

Community Science, a Catalyst to a Connected World - Gabrielle Arnold

The concept of delving into the scientific community with no prior experience is intimidating. Without a degree and years in a lab, what makes you qualified to make scientific observations? How could you, without any credibility, possibly contribute to a field filled with the minds and skill sets of experts? The good news is you are not alone. The desire to understand the world around you is a powerful tool that should not be underestimated. This tool can also be defined as community science...

The first step to get involved is to download iNaturalist. In my opinion, this app is the closest tangible thing to magic known to man. By simply snapping a photo of just about anything in nature, you can get closer to knowing exactly what it is. Mammals, birds, fish, insects, plants, fungi, and even bacteria – dead or alive – can be identified from your photo. However, it doesn’t stop there. You can also upload tracks, feathers, nests, and even droppings. Anything left behind can be a clue to what might be living close to your location...

The Nature Place hosts the Driftless Area BioBlitz. These events, known as BioBlitzes, are held by educated professionals from our community who volunteer their time and skills to teach people about specific groups of nature in monthly family-friendly events...

Knowledge from these events or your app spill into your everyday life. I have grown so much from participating in community science. Now, I can confidently point to and identify plants on my hikes, and my partner thinks I am a botanical mastermind. Although science requires experts to derive important contextual meaning from a scattered array of observations, the data collected by ordinary people with curiosity and a camera is invaluable. (Read Full Article)

Watching Out for Warblers…and Windows - Emma Lather

As an undergrad, I got hooked on Pokémon Go. In grad school, I got hooked on birding. The similarities are uncanny; I wander through the tall grass in search of new creatures to capture in my Pokéball (binoculars), record in my Pokédex (life list), and report to Professor Oak (eBird). From the moment I picked up binoculars (figuring someone getting a Master’s doing bird research should probably be able to identify some birds), I was doomed to fall in love. There’s something charming about birds, especially during their spring migration when the world is coming back to life. March brings early returners like ducks and robins, April has me examining every little brown bird to check for new sparrows, and May produces an explosion of warblers dancing in the leaves...

However, this fun season for birders represents a harrowing journey for the birds –migration is the most dangerous portion of birds’ annual cycle. All that flying makes birds hungry and tired, forcing them to explore unfamiliar environments in search of food and places to rest. Human-made environments like suburban neighborhoods and farms have replaced native habitats, making high-quality resources harder to find and bringing threats associated with people close to remaining wild spaces...

So what can we do? What can you do? While protecting wild stopover habitats (where migrating birds rest and refuel) is very important, there are plenty of actions you can take in your own home and yard to lend the birds a wing.

• Keep cats indoors or on a leash…
• Plant native and avoid using pesticides... 
• Turn off unneeded exterior and interior lights between 11pm and 6am… 
• Make your windows easier to see...

We at The Nature Place – both the people and the birds – appreciate you doing your part to make migration a little bit safer. And as you walk by this spring, keep an eye out for our feathered friends, the window dots, and me. I’ll be the one with the binoculars! (Read Full Article)

Stories of Service from NCCAP AmeriCorps Members

North Central Community Action Program (NCCAP) AmeriCorps members serve elementary, middle school, high school and adult learners at local schools and nonprofit organizations, providing direct services to youth and their families while building up their own professional and human services skills and capacities. The following are excerpts from service reflections from five NCCAP AmeriCorps members.

Geneva Michlig – serving at the Wausau School District

While serving in the afternoon G2M programming during the first week of Summer Learning, I got to know a student who primarily speaks Spanish. She is a young elementary schooler, so she does not have much exposure to only English-speaking environments. Due to my experience taking Spanish classes in high school, I could communicate with her more effectively than other adults and students. We recently took a field trip to a bowling alley, which was a new experience for her. Despite seeming unsure initially, she quickly took to the game with the help of myself and another adult who had some Spanish-speaking experience. This challenged my Spanish-speaking skills, as I did not know many of the specific Spanish words used when bowling. When I first spoke to her, she giggled a little at my obvious accent and most likely incorrect grammar, but we quickly overcame our language barriers and helped each other communicate using both languages. Seeing her eyes light up with the important feeling of being understood and watching her expand her social skills due to this newfound confidence gave me an increased motivation to stretch my skills… (Read Full Reflection)

Jean Abreu – serving at the Wausau School District 

Imagine finding a set of huge non-human footprints in a muddy section of your backyard, clearly indicating that 'someone' had been there! This is what animal tracking is all about. One Friday morning I took a group of students out to the Mead Wildlife Area to learn about animal tracking from DNR Educators. It was a very rich and hands-on experience for participants as they made their own tracking booklets, actually made track impressions using clay, and went on a short walk to identify other 'signs' and evidence that other animals had also been on the trail…All of this generated lots of discussion as the DNR folks guided students through the process of looking at the evidence and making some identification decisions. All in all the field trip was a great success. Students had a very engaging, hands-on experience with the DNR Educators… (Read Full Reflection)

Jazmin Paynter – serving at the Wausau School District 

…A (student) group that another staff member and I help run prepared for a Leadership Conference that we would go to in the middle of the month. We left on a Tuesday morning and spent all day, jumping from different speakers, all completely different from the next. Some spoke about entrepreneurship, others spoke about resumes, college bound subjects, life challenges. I walked away with so many amazing things and our students did too. To celebrate the day and the amazing leaders they are, they then got to go into the waterpark and run around for 2 hours. It was such an amazing trip and our 5 students that went, really showed us WHY they're leaders and proved just how worth it every day with them really is. We got to know them all and share about our lives with one another and it was an amazing Team bonding experience.

Devon Price – serving at the Monk Botanical Gardens

Every day is different but a day could look like spending my morning planting the gardens and my afternoon organizing important paperwork. My day could also be a field trip. On days like these, I get to lead a group to catch land bugs, water organisms, view wildlife, and show our passion for nature and the gardens…The children in this field trip group excitedly grabbed nets. They were so excited to catch water bugs from the pond. However, when they began to catch things, they became nervous. I was able to help these young kids fight through their fears and feel safe and handle their catches, including tadpoles, water beetles, and even a baby turtle.

Jaden Rose Betts – serving at 4H Marathon County

In my short time serving 4-H in this month of May, a success was our 4-H family night. There were many families that came together to support 4-H and we all had fun together. A "typical" day at my host site is meeting and discussing on upcoming programs. I will be getting materials ready for programs and/or practicing the activity and learning the material so I can properly share and teach the upcoming program/lesson properly…We are partnering with Boys and Girls Club of Wausau doing some STEM related activities, Children's Imaginarium is also doing some STEM related activities, (as well as partnering with) other 4-H clubs and other 4-H counties on many different fun activities...

This month I attended the AmeriCorps Governor’s Service Awards Ceremony in Green Lake. I really enjoyed this event because it opened my eyes to what all the AmeriCorps programs are doing around the state and to know and feel proud to call myself an AmeriCorps member, knowing I am also making a difference in my community.

Take our Community Input Survey to provide information about local needs in your community to help

Serve Wisconsin develop our 3-Year State Service Plan

Serve Wisconsin is seeking input for our next three-year State Service Plan. The State Service Plan is our strategic plan that will assist us in focusing our efforts to to promote service, provide training, and allocate resources to programs and organizations that enrich lives and communities through service and volunteerism. Our 2022-2024 State Service Plan can be found on the Serve Wisconsin website.

We can use your help to to best understand the needs that currently exist throughout our state. Please complete our Community Input Survey to help shape AmeriCorps and our support of volunteer service here in Wisconsin.

• Click to Complete the Community Input Survey

Service story from Schools of Hope AmeriCorps member

June episode of The S-Files podcast

This month on The S-Files, we explored the service story of AmeriCorps member Kathy Esposito, who is serving this year with Schools of Hope. Check out this month's episode below. You can access all of the episodes on The S-Files podcast series website.

Bringing a Passion for Literacy to Serving Students with Schools of Hope after a Career in Journalism

In this episode of The S-Files, we are exploring the service done by AmeriCorps member Kathy Esposito, who served this year with Schools of Hope at Lowell Elementary in Madison. Kathy discusses her service as a literacy tutor this year, from helping some of her students learn their alphabet and letter sounds to helping others build up their skills and confidence for more challenging books. She describes how she came to her AmeriCorps service this year after a career in journalism and with a passion for language and literacy, and finding enjoyment working with the students to develop their reading skills. Listen in to learn how Kathy has been able to serve neighborhood students at the same school her children attended and some of her favorite books for helping her students become better readers. (listen to the episode here)

For those interested in taking an active role in promoting national service and volunteerism in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin National and Community Service Board has one vacancy for a board member for the following appointment type:

• A representative of local labor

Those interested in serving must complete an application to the governor for the appointment. The online application for a board position can be found HERE, with additional information on the application process found at Apply to Serve - Governor Tony Evers. If you are interested in serving on the board and have any questions, please contact Serve Wisconsin Executive Director Jeanne Duffy at jeanne.duffy@wisconsin.gov.

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