Et cetera : Latest NCCC members to graduate Nov. 18 after 9 months of service

130 young adults will be graduating from the AmeriCorps NCCC program on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at the North Central Campus. The graduation ceremony begins promptly at 6:00 p.m. and is being held at Vinton-Shellsburg High School Auditorium in Vinton. Kim Mansaray, chief program officer and deputy chief of staff at the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency which administers the AmeriCorps NCCC program, is the guest speaker.

The ceremony marks the end of a 10-month journey that began in February 2014. NCCC corps members and team leaders have completed more than 156,982 hours of community service while finishing 92 service projects throughout the North Central Region. During their term of service, corps members and team leaders served in teams of 10-12 and were deployed on service projects across the North Central Region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

The service completed by NCCC teams included performing prairie restoration, invasive species removal and prescribed burns with various County Conservation Boards, conservancies and parks; assisting with educational activities for youth at YMCA camps and Boys and Girls clubs; assisting with all aspects of home construction with Habitat for Humanity; and assisting with flood recovery efforts with various organizations.

The accomplishments of these 130 NCCC corps members and team leaders are quite notable, and include:

· 16 projects completed in the service area of Natural and Other Disasters

· 21 projects completed in the state of Iowa

· 1,050 people assisted in disaster areas

· 6,664 acres of land burned in prescribed burns

· 70,324 lbs. of food received, inventoried or distributed

• 260,326 pounds of exotic vegetation removed
• 32 acres of wildlife habitats restored or protected
• 4,367 trees planted
• 210 native plants planted
• 19,037 meals served
• 6,315 K-12 students supported in out of school programs
• 556,580 pounds of debris or trash removed
• 200 homes mucked and/or gutted.

The AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) engages 1,200 young Americans in a full-time, 10-month commitment to service each year. AmeriCorps NCCC members address critical needs related to natural and other disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and conservation, and urban and rural development; CNCS is the federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads President's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit www.nationalservice.gov.