On this year’s Martin Luther King Junior Day, VISTA volunteers came together to help work on projects in both Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Two members both worked at the same site helping to weatherize a resource center in the Wellington Heights Neighborhood of Cedar Rapids.

“I attended two service projects [on] this Martin Luther King Junior Day,” said one VISTA volunteer. He went on to say, “[On] the first project, I decided to volunteer for my previous service organization, Green Iowa AmeriCorps, to help weatherize the Wellington House. The Wellington House is one of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites in Cedar Rapids and is instrumental in providing assistance to those in need in the Wellington Heights neighborhood.”

He added, “I appreciated seeing new Green Iowa AmeriCorps members empowering communities with education, outreach and weatherization; they agreed with me that the service is very intrinsically meaningful work.”

“The second service project I attended consisted of organizing, sorting and boxing non-perishable donations for HACAP at my current term’s site Mount Mercy University. I enjoy working with the students and staff at Mount Mercy University because they have a strong tradition of service,” said this VISTA.

The other VISTA volunteer also worked with Green Iowa on improving energy efficiency at the Wellington House. He worked to seal up various air leaks around the windows in the upstairs portion of the Wellington resource center.

“I met many great people, and in particular in was nice to get to know a couple [of them] among the new crop of AmeriCorps*NCCC leaders who came down from Vinton, Iowa,” he said.

“The experience was both informative and effective. After performing the final tests, the volunteers were happy to see huge improvements in energy efficiency,” he said.

The VISTA who worked at the Wellington House and also at HACAP summed up the day by saying, “After my service projects, and the other tasks I had planned for the day, I listened to speeches given by Martin Luther King Junior. His message of working for a just, equitable and fair society, working for positive social change through the work of your life and service is always inspiring.”

One VISTA member organized a project for Martin Luther King Junior Day. Her project involved installing shelving in the new Lundby Townhomes library and cataloging approximately 1300 books.

She said, “It was wonderful to be a part of such a diverse group of people united to serve others. The spirit of service advanced by Martin Luther King Junior was present in the attitudes of those who came to volunteer. It was a joyful and rewarding experience!”

She added, “The day of service was very productive here at Lundby Townhomes. We had 30 volunteers serve for a total of 89 hours. We accomplished more than I thought we could. Thanks to our volunteers, the Lundby Library is really shaping up!”

The Martin Luther King Junior Day was a great success once again this year! VISTA’s all throughout Cedar Rapids and Iowa City took part in this day by cleaning, organizing and promoting volunteerism.

One VISTA worked on a project for the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP). Another VISTA worked with the Leadership and Resiliency Program at Matthew 25 and yet another VISTA volunteered at Iowa Legal Aid to help supervise volunteers and assemble homeless survival bags.

The VISTA working in HACAP said, “Originally it was supposed to be a semi-large group of about twelve volunteers preparing emergency food boxes for families within the community. However, when I showed up I was informed I would be crunching numbers that pertained to how many meals HACAP delivered throughout the 2011 fiscal year for various agencies in Linn County and neighboring counties.”

She went on to say, “Although I was disappointed I wasn’t able to assemble the food boxes, I am aware that I helped serve HACAP even if it was [through doing] paper work.”

Her day went well and she enjoyed the event. She said, “The best part of the experience was taking a tour of the warehouse and familiarizing myself with how HACAP helps assist local agencies. I signed up to volunteer at this agency for MLK Day because of my volunteer work at the Johnson County Crisis Center, which receives goods from HACAP.”

This small handful of VISTA volunteers helped to make an impact on the communities of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City in tribute to Martin Luther King Junior. Volunteerism is always going to be an important agent of change, and thanks to the help of these VISTA’s, this MLK Day was once again a great success!

Many VISTA’s in Cedar Rapids volunteered their time on Martin Luther King Junior Day this year. It was a great experience for everyone involved!

One VISTA helped with the 26^th Annual Remembering Martin Luther King Junior Luncheon at the Hotel at Kirkwood. She said, “This event recognized the work of 22 individuals who demonstrated exceptional characteristics of service and leadership though volunteer work, school attendance, academic performance and positive behavior. I assisted the staff with collating program booklets, stuffing envelopes and creating table tents. On the day of the event, I assisted with setting up, greeting those in attendance and providing program booklets for the event.”

Overall her day of went very well, “I enjoyed giving tribute to a man, who against all odds, pushed to accomplish what many thought was impossible. The Keynote speaker, Judge Romonda Belcher, encouraged us all to find our purpose (calling) and commit to it. In doing so, we will be able to accomplish what many might think is unattainable. The race of life is not for the swift but for those willing to endure the hardships of this life, yet with compassion and a smile!”

Another VISTA member worked at the Shelter House in Iowa City. He worked with a tour and had a conversation with United Action for Youth’s (UAY’s) Community Youth Leadership Program, which is a group of high school juniors who get together once every month to learn about organizations in Iowa City and eventually develop a service project.

He worked on a second project also and said, “The second project was a session of our Volunteer Service Lab– a creative, collaborative space for volunteers to gather and develop projects and processes for the Shelter. We developed a media kit concept and screening process to empower community members looking to do fundraisers for the Shelter House. I baked a pecan pie for my Service Lab volunteers, which according to a few websites, was Martin Luther King Jr’s favorite food.”

“The day was a success! At first, I was kicking myself for scheduling the tour and Service Lab back-to-back, knowing that both take a fair bit of prep, but everything came-off nicely. High schoolers can be a little intimidating, especially when the group is large, but the Community Youth Leadership Program impressed me with their eminent professionalism and their thoughtful questions,” he said.

He added, “It was invigorating– I was able to work with individuals who bring a great curiosity and energy to the community, and to jump from the tour right into a new project. Both the Service Lab and the conversation I shared with the Community Youth Leadership Program further Shelter House’s commitment to being an active presence in the community.”

Another VISTA worked at her service site for Martin Luther King Junior Day. “We [Jane Boyd] offered full-day programming for our 1^st – 8^th grade students enrolled in the after school program. A portion of programming was dedicated to honoring Martin Luther King Jr.”

She said, “As usual, I had a great day with our youth! We discussed the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his impact on civil rights and community service. We also talked about what we can do to better serve our own communities. Afterwards we worked on service projects in our classrooms (organizing bookshelves, cleaning cabinets, etc.) and talked about future projects we plan to do. It is very exciting to have our youth wanting to be more involved with their communities!”

“While we offered our full-day programming we also had several community volunteers and NCCC AmeriCorps members dedicate their service day to our building clean-up. Office Coordinator, Bridgette Gassman worked with United Way to create a much needed service project for MLK day. She surpassed her requested number of volunteers and had over 20 participants that day! They did a wonderful job and completed 100% of the assignments!” she said.

She went on to say, “I had a chance to speak with a few of the AmeriCorps members and it was very inspiring to hear about their commitment to service! I hope to contact their site supervisor and have some members share with our youth about their service year and the importance of giving back to communities in need. I think it’s important to make community service a part of our lives and to be the example for the children we’re serving.”

Tax season has started, and our VITA sites are open.  For more information, visit Cedar Rapids Tax Help:

http://cedarrapidstaxes.org

And the answer is: federal, yes, Iowa, no.

For more information see this announcement from the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service.

David Savino is instrumental to the operation of the Early Childhood and Youth Development areas at the United Way of East Central Iowa and has held that position since the end of June of last year. He is the Education Initiatives Coordinator there.

Savino is from Madison, Wisconsin and spent his first two years of college at the University of Delaware and then graduated with a degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison last May.

“I heard about the AmeriCorps from a relative who was doing his VISTA term in Prescott, Arizona. He [Savino’s relative] had great things to say about his program, the people he was working with, and the impact he was having on the small community,” said Savino.

Savino has a large job responsibility at the United Way. “I am responsible for constant communication, support, guidance, etc. for our programs in the Early Childhood and Youth Development areas. I provide support for the Early Literacy Program (called RED Ahead) by analyzing data, completing inventory of resources, ordering books and materials, etc. On the Youth Development side, I develop and utilize needs assessment research, community data and best practice research to support decision-making and program development/assessment processes,” Savino said.

The United Way is a large program with a large scope. “Advancing the common good is a main goal of ours [United Way]. To do this, United Way’s generally have three ‘community solution areas’ they focus on: Education, Income, and Health. Getting more specific, in the Education area for example, one of our community goals is to increase the number of low-income children ready for school by 50% by 2016,” explained Savino.

Initially, Savino had a very wide understanding of what his position would entail and has settled into the position well. “Going into my term, I had a very broad, general, and limited understanding of the United Way and its impact on the community. My perception, like many others I’ve found out, was that the United Way was similar to a bank in some fashion; an institution that takes money in and distributes it out. I quickly found that this is a very simplistic and naive opinion, as the United Way has a deep connection to the community, and has established relationships with countless organizations throughout its six county service area,” said Savino.

He went on to say, “Being here for six months, I definitely feel as if I’m settled into my position. The staff here made it extremely easy to become comfortable in the office and they are always willing to help the VISTA’s out. I cannot begin to describe the amount of food I’ve been given in the past six months- I rarely pack a lunch!”

Savino has an oversight role with the RED Ahead program. Savino said, “I have been able to witness the effects and advantages of exposing children (birth to age five) and their mothers to quality literacy techniques. Stationed at the local Urban WIC Clinic (Women, Infants, and Children), the RED Ahead program aims to address a growing community need of addressing low-income children and their inability to master reading proficiency by the fourth grade. An early literacy specialist at the clinic sees the enrolled families for about ten to twenty minutes each where she describes the program, provides literacy coaching, and supply’s them with educational materials including books.”

He continued, “RED Ahead started seeing families September 1st and has been wildly popular! Even though this is a voluntary program for WIC families, my latest estimation has the participation rate at about 80%. There has been a trend in the number of young adults who are dropping out of school and do not have the skills they need to become productive adults in today’s society. Programs like RED Ahead look to close the gap between low-income children and their peers when it comes to being proficient in basic reading skills.”

Savino really enjoys his job at the United Way. “Being able to work with so many community members who are passionate about this area and its children has been truly inspiring. No two days are the same, and the opportunities to make a difference are abundant. It feels great to be apart of an organization like the United Way, and I only hope my next six months are as fulfilling as the past six!” Savino said.

Savino encourages everyone to check out the United Way’s website to donate and volunteer!