AmeriCorps volunteers tackle projects at Arkansas 4-H Center
By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Dec. 5, 2024
Fast Facts:
- AmeriCorps team of nine members spending six weeks at Arkansas 4-H Center
- Volunteers range from 18-23 years old
- Projects on site include new shingles for pavilion, pool house, lighting for new storage building
(1,196 words)
(Newsrooms: Bilderbeck, Zyhowski, and Voltzikos names are c.q.)
(Newsrooms: With group photo)
LITTLE ROCK — A group of AmeriCorps volunteers are putting their minds and muscles to work in central Arkansas, improving the C.A. Vines Arkansas 4-H Center with projects great and small during the final months of 2024.
Nine AmeriCorps volunteers from throughout the United States are completing a variety of roofing, electrical and groundskeeping projects at the center, where the team will stay until Dec. 13.
Shannon Caldwell, extension 4-H Center program director for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said this group is the ninth AmeriCorps team to “make their mark on the 4-H Center.”
“The evidence of past teams’ impacts can be seen all around the 4-H Center campus,” Caldwell said. “AmeriCorps team members are hardworking young adults with a true heart for service. Their volunteer work allows us to expand opportunities in an efficient and affordable way. While the AmeriCorps teams never really see the full impact of their work, every person who visits the 4-H Center is benefitting from their time with us.”
Caldwell said past AmeriCorps teams have assisted with LED lighting conversion across the campus, saving the center more than 1 million kilowatts of electricity each year. They have also sorted and recycled 7.5 tons of materials, established and maintained trails and assisted the Arkansas Forestry Commission in a 43-acre controlled burn to reduce the risk of wildfire and “encourage revival of native flora,” she said.
After completing training in Colorado, the team arrived at the center on Nov. 7. It is the first site for the team’s 10-month service term.
“Our first project was removing a bunch of willow weed, an invasive species, from Lake Laverne,” said volunteer Cydney Henson. “I think we removed 22,000 pounds — we knocked it out in less than three days. We’d spent a lot of time in training, so we were ready to go.”
Since arriving, the team has made repairs to the Berner Pavilion roof and installed new shingles on the pool house roof. They have also used an electric lift to install lighting in a large new storage building on the campus, which Caldwell said will allow program staff to move into the new facility and free up space in other areas on the campus. In the same building, the group has installed plywood panels along the inner perimeter to create walls.
Volunteer Jonae King, 23, from Las Vegas, Nevada, said she has enjoyed the variety of the projects her group has been working on.
“I can’t say I have a favorite skill quite yet — I love everything that we’re doing,” she said. “It’s physically and mentally challenging. We’re glad to be pitching in and helping.”
During the rest of their time on the site, Caldwell said the group will add gravel and make improvements to the canoe beach, repaint the Mike Klumpp Pavilion at the Ropes Course, replace the wooden retaining wall at the campfire area with a stone retaining wall and split firewood to be used at campfires throughout the campus. They will also pressure wash the scenic boardwalk behind the Environmental Education Cabin, trim limbs along the trails, and add mulch to multiple program areas, including the archery range.
Seeking to serve
Henson, 19, is from Sycamore, Illinois, and said she joined AmeriCorps after graduating high school because she didn’t want to head to college just yet.
“I didn’t necessarily know what I wanted to do, and I wanted to get out in the real world and start doing actual work right away,” she said. “That’s why I joined AmeriCorps, to really get some experience.”
Many of her fellow volunteers expressed the same desire to take a gap year before starting college. Chay Bilderbeck, 19, is from Eugene, Oregon, and is serving his second term with AmeriCorps.
“I think the most appealing part was the idea of getting to travel around the country, while also being able to do the service work,” Bilderbeck said. “Also, over the past year, after doing my first stint, I learned all these hard skills, and that makes me interested in learning more.”
Bilderbeck said during his previous term, he received his Sawyer Certification to handle chainsaws with the U.S. Forest Service, his favorite new skill.
For some of the other team members, an AmeriCorps term was the right fit for a post-college experience.
Kathleen Galdi, 23, from North Carolina, recently graduated college said she and wanted to “spend some time helping out communities and learning new skills before I get a job and start in the workforce.”
“I feel like it’s very important to give back to communities, and to try to help out while you’re young,” Galdi said. “It’s a really good opportunity to travel, and actually live in a place, as opposed to just being a tourist there. It’s really beneficial.”
For Ava Zyhowski, 23, from Wisconsin, her AmeriCorps term is helping to fill the gap between her undergraduate degree and the next step in her academic career.
“I’m on a one-year wait list for an ultrasound technician program at my college, so I thought, ‘This sounds like a great way to spend a perfect year chunk,’” Zyhowski said. “Doing productive things for good organizations and good people, and I think I’ll get a lot of valuable life experience from this before I finish off my schooling.”
Niko Voltzikos, 23, joined AmeriCorps after attending a trade school. He said the origin of the AmeriCorps program, which is modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps, appealed to him.
“I was looking for a little break from work, and I’d heard about the CCC, what that used to be, and this is the remnants of the old CCC,” Voltzikos said. “I thought it would be a really cool thing to do, to help out others and build my knowledge about stuff we’ve been doing so far, like roofing and electrical work.”
Voltzikos said it will be fulfilling to see the impact of his group’s service over the past few weeks.
“They’ve got a lot of wonderful facilities here at the 4-H Center, and not only being able to work on the facilities and improve them, but also use them ourselves — and to see the students and groups that get to come here and use them, that will be rewarding,” he said.
Caldwell said the 4-H Center staff applied to sponsor an AmeriCorps team for the ninth time because “we’ve seen the long-term impact a team can have on a place or organization.”
“You can look all around the Vines Center campus and see how past AmeriCorps teams have expanded opportunities for the youth and adults who participate in our programs,” Caldwell said. “Hosting a team is really an extension of the goals of 4-H, which is to provide opportunities for young people to become ‘empowered, confident, hard-working, determined, responsible and compassionate — seeing a world beyond themselves — so that they have the life-long skills to succeed.’
“I really think we learn from AmeriCorps members just as much as they might learn from us,” Caldwell said. “We love sponsoring a team, and we are grateful for the opportunity.”
To learn more about the C.A. Vines Arkansas 4-H Center, visit thevinescenter.org. To learn more about AmeriCorps, visit americorps.gov.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on five system campuses.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
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Media Contact:
Rebekah Hall
rkhall@uada.edu
@RKHall_
501-671-2061