Et cetera : FEMA Corps Members Lend Helping Hands In Chicago

Team Leader Becky Hofkes finds a pair of pliers

All the volunteers together at the end of the work day

By: Maya Jordan

Several corps members of team Hickory 7 from Vinton’s AmeriCorps NCCC-FEMA Corps (National Civilian Community Corps) program recently served on an Independent Service Project on Saturday, April 6 to help remove trash at the Burnham Nature Center. The Burnham Nature Center is located in Chicago’s Hyde Park, which is home to various animals, prairies, sanctuaries, gardens and natural reserves.

The project began early in the morning and lasted until noon. Upon arriving at the site the team was met by Kathleen Taylor, the Burnham Nature Center Volunteer Site Steward, who immediately began to delegate tasks, dividing volunteers into groups of five. Then she handed tools such as white buckets, gloves, shovels, plastic bags and rakes to provide easy trash pick-up.

Thereafter, Taylor provided the 20 volunteers, which included a mix of Hickory 7 team members and community members, a brief history of the nature center. She first mentioned how the sanctuary is a habitat for many animals including birds, wild coyote and deer, prairie grassland, forests and woodlands. But before its existence it was a landfill that was later topped with soil. The park was constructed in 1998 by Daniel Burnham, an architect that believed in the beautification of the prairie ecosystem.

Burnham Nature Center prides itself on being a protected place for wildlife and the people. It is a place for the community and tourists to learn and discover natural and unnatural succession. Students enrolled in nearby schools use the center as a biodiversity science laboratory. Maintenance on the center is usually done by local volunteers monthly.

At the end of the day, the team was able to rid the center 130 pounds trash which included broken glass bottles, plastic food wrappers, rusted saws, fire blankets, pliers, missing identification cards and even Taco Bell sauce packages. “Thank you all for your hard work last Saturday at Burnham Nature Sanctuary. You were awesome!” said Taylor.