AmeriCorps helps river town take a stand

National service without firearms
“It’s been a lot of work. It’s been stressful,” Henning says. “I’ve gotten three or four hours of sleep each night for the past five weeks.” But, “the fact that I can serve my nation without shooting a gun is pretty exciting,” he adds.

Rooney, who is tall and blond and sports a string of hand-written phone numbers on her hand, says she believes national service programs don’t attract as many participants as they could because “some people just don’t know about the opportunity and how rewarding it is.”

Others are worried about getting started in the work world and “don’t realize the career advantages” of experiences like AmeriCorps, she adds.

“It makes you stand out from the crowd,” Rooney says. “You’re putting yourself in a position where you don’t know what’s going to happen. You’re challenging yourself and showing a commitment to your community.”

With their current AmeriCorps contracts expiring in August, Henning and Rooney are not done serving.

Henning is in the final stages of enrolling with the Peace Corps, awaiting word on his assignment, which he hopes will be somewhere in Africa. Rooney is looking for a chance to work with disadvantaged young people in an outdoor setting.

Regardless of the good deal that taxpayers are getting, their biggest payoff is “when a person who has been directly affected by this comes up and tells me what a difference it has made, us being here, and knowing that’s true,” Rooney says.

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