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One Year Anniversary of the Volunteer Center
July 2nd 2008 the Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) opened just 19 days after the devastating floods last spring that hit the city of Cedar Rapids and flooded over 7,000 homes, businesses and non-profits. Staffed by AmeriCorps VISTAs who quickly began to set up a process to help flood victims, the VRC opened with the help of Janet Pace, who came up from Louisiana. The VRC is a partnership between Community Corrections Improvement Association (CCIA) and the United Way of East Central Iowa. The AmeriCorps VISTA Staff, which was nearly one hundred strong with the help of strangers from near and far, began quickly mucking and gutting homes affected by the flood. As time went on and the recovery continued, the VRC moved to its new home on 220 6th St. NW in December. The Community Recovery Center (CRC) is a one stop shop for any homeowner with needs related to the flood. The Volunteer Reception Center is just one of the many organizations in the CRC with other such organizations as the Case Advocates, construction coordinator, Salvation Army and grant programs to assist flood affected people. As the one year anniversary of the VRC is upon us, the amount of work that the AmeriCorps VISTAs and community members and strangers from near and far have contributed is tremendous. The volunteer center has put in 114,588 volunteer hours by 5,825 volunteers coordinated by the VRC to date, which equates to 1,145,886 dollars to be used towards the FEMA match. There is continued local and national awareness of the needs in Cedar Rapids. This is apparent with the deluge of volunteers that the VRC has hosted even one year after the floods, with over 4,000 volunteers working this summer in the Cedar Rapids area. The amount of progress that has been made with the assistance from the AmeriCorps VISTA program has been great, but there is still much work to be done.