National Service News: Find Your Fountain of Youth

Ask a Senior Corps volunteer where to find yours [] Having trouble viewing this email? [View it as a Web page](. [Neil Barbanell, 90, has been an RSVP volunteer with San Clemente law enforcement agencies for 27 years. (Photo by Fred Swelges/Orange County Register)]( Find Your Fountain of Youth Way back when, many of us learned about the legend of Ponce de Leon, who left Puerto Rico in search of the Fountain of Youth in the area now known as the Bahamas – but instead landed in Florida. [This tale has been has been downgraded]( due to mythbusters (small “m”) and historians, however we still like the idea of something that can make us feel like a kid again. Even without a magical spring, we know about a group of people who have found one of the keys to vitality and health. We call them [Senior Corps]( volunteers. The gentleman pictured above is 90-year-old Neil Barbanell, an RSVP volunteer in San Clemente, Calif. He has served in the program with San Clemente law enforcement agencies for 27 years, starting at age 63, and there are two other nonagenarians serving in RSVP with him. You can[read more about his story and the special way he celebrated his 90th birthday here](. (H/T to The Orange County Register for this story.) Maybe it’s something in the California water. Or maybe it’s the selfless act of volunteering. The [Corporation for National and Community Service]( has found that our senior volunteers regularly report health benefits, including improved physical and mental health, greater life satisfaction, and lower rates of depression. Our RSVP, [Foster Grandparent]( and [Senior Companion]( volunteers not only help others – from children in preschool and day care to their contemporaries living out their golden years – they also help themselves. As we like to say around these parts, volunteering adds years to your life and life to your years. So, while immortality is still out of reach, there is a way to stay young and make a mark of the community where you live. Just set your sights on service and find your very own fountain of youth. In service, CNCS Office of External Affairs The Impact of National Service [Senior Corps RSVP awards $5.3 million in grants to 50 new communities.]( [CNCS Awards $5.3 Million in Senior Corps Grants to 50 New Communities]( The Corporation for National and Community Service announced more than $5.3 million in Senior Corps RSVP funding to support senior volunteer service in 50 new communities across the country. These grants awarded to nonprofits and community agencies will expand RSVP’s presence in areas previously unserved by Senior Corps RSVP programs. [Read more]( [Adams State University’s Veterans Center recently received a $10,000 grant from the Xcel Energy Foundation to expand the veterans support services.]( [Xcel Foundation Grant Expands Adams State Services for Veterans]( Adams State University’s Veterans Center recently received a $10,000 grant from the Xcel Energy Foundation to expand the center’s services to support veteran student success and career exploration. Veterans in the surrounding communities, as well as on-campus veterans and their dependents, will benefit. “This grant will help us take veterans to the next phase of their lives as they transition to the workforce,” explained Veterans/Military Affairs Coordinator Matthew Martinez. The funding will bolster existing programs such as tutoring, resource/career fairs, and job training. It will also support student attendance at conferences and seminars to build skills and provide access to careers. The program will give particular attention to veterans entering the fields of business and STEM (science, mathematics, engineering and technology). [Read more]( [Student Conservation Association AmeriCorps members work to rebuild a shelter in Beartown State Forest. (Stephanie Zollshan photo/The Berkshire Eagle)]( [Return to Beartown: AmeriCorps Volunteers Rebuilding Wildcat Lodge]( "Is anyone not ready?" John Simkins' voice cut through the forest on June 29. Hearing no complaints from the seven other people surrounding a log, he counted down from three. All eight squatting figures rose. The log came with them. They moved forward. Simkins leads a team of five AmeriCorps members working with the Student Conservation Association for Massachusetts. Their mission: to rebuild a historic lodge in Beartown State Forest. "There are three crews for 10 days each," explained Tim Craig, the program's manager. "The project should take about six weeks." The groups are repairing and reassembling the Wildcat Lodge in Beartown. The lodge is about a half mile off the access road, past a vista that stretches as far as the Catskills on a clear day. [Read more]( [Girls in the Game is using sports to improve the lives of those who might otherwise get left behind.]( [How this Chicago Organization is Using Sports to Empower Young Girls (AmeriCorps)]( Growing up in Chicago, Lucy Mucino did well in school and played rugby at her high school, Rauner College Prep, but there was something missing. “I grew up in a not so well-rounded household,” Mucino says. And even school didn’t feel like the most positive environment. But that changed when her high school guidance counselor suggested she speak with two individuals from an organization called Girls in the Game. Mucino knew nothing about the group but took the meeting anyway. When she arrived, a woman aptly named Coach Margaret told Mucino that their organization provided sports and leadership activities to girls throughout Chicago and that Mucino could help out by running workshops for younger children as a counselor. Mucino, an athlete herself, liked the idea of helping other girls through sports, and when she found out the organization also offered scholarship opportunities, she applied right away and eventually joined the Teen Squad program. [Read more]( Share It: Foster Grandparents Bolster Texas Boys and Girls Club Summer Program [Fay Jones helps kids work on a craft project on Tuesday, June 27, 2017 at the Martinez Boys and Girls Club in Abilene, TX.]( Each week, we will provide a social media shareable to use on your networks. Today we are highlighting a radio story about [Senior Corps Foster Grandparents]( who are supporting an Abilene, Texas, Boys and Girls Club, and helping kids there involved and active during the summer months. [Click here to listen to the radio story and learn more about these fantastic Foster Grandparents](.. --------------------------------------------------------------- National Service in the News [Hometown Hero Helps Improve Young Students’ Test Scores (AmeriCorps)]( WYTV-TV, Ohio Cosetta McMillan’s passion for helping others, especially young students, is what makes her a Hometown Hero. McMillan volunteers with AmeriCorps as a reading tutor at Youngstown City Schools. She said the third graders’ test scores have improved tremendously since she started volunteering with them. “I love the students. We feed off one another. We learn from one another.” She was nominated by her coworker, Angie DeNicholas, who said each student has made progress in a short amount of time because of McMillan. “This is a person who is really involved and just loves what they do,” DeNicholas said. “She’s such a positive person.” On top of helping students succeed in school, McMillan also works at Help Hotline, talking to people who are at risk for suicide. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [AmeriCorps Member Sports Google Trekker to Capture Footage of Anchorage Parks and Trails]( KTUU-TV, Alaska The state's largest city has no shortage of parks to enjoy and now a high-tech hiker is venturing through many of them to capture footage to share around the globe. "It's the big backing backpack, that has lots of lens, can go on the trails, can go and map the areas you can't drive on," Maddy Boutet,19, said Saturday. Boutet is an AmeriCorps member in Anchorage working with the parks and recreation department. She's been wearing a 40-pound google trekker to capture footage with its 15 lenses. She says there were initially some technical difficulties but they've since been worked out, and now the system works with the push of a button. "Android phone connects to this big thing, hit play button, takes panoramas of the areas, update with an SD card that's involved with the backpack," she said. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [YouthBuild Helps to Change the Lives of Young Adults (AmeriCorps)]( The Florida Courier, Florida Anna Edwards has come a long way. The 25-year-old, who grew up in West Tampa, got pregnant at 16 years old. She dropped out of high school because of it, following the footsteps of her mother and grandmother, also teen mothers. All of the participants receive construction skills. “They paused their education. They paused everything they were doing when they started having kids. But I’m like, you know what, I’m going to go for it. I’m not going to stop, I can’t stop,” said Edwards. That desire led her to Tampa Housing Authority’s YouthBuild program. After seeing her brother’s success with the program, she decided to give it a shot. Four years later, the 25-year-old has a steady full-time job, multiple construction certifications, and is a homeowner. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Students Participate in Passport to Fishing Program (AmeriCorps)]( The Bargain Hunter, Ohio TUSCParks AmeriCorps Gabriel Riggle led a special event for the community on Saturday, June 17. Thanks to funding from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and many volunteer hours, local middle school students participated in the Passport to Fishing curriculum. They learned how to tie knots, cast, read angling regulations, and ensure they keep fish habitats clean and healthy. Attendees were able to keep their rod, reel and tackle. The Latino Cultural Connection helped with translation, AmeriCorps members from other programs and community members led education stations, and Commissioner Joe Sciarretti helped with angling. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Retirement is Out, New Portfolio Careers are In]( The Economist In the shadow of towering apartment blocks in Nowon-gu, a suburb of Seoul, employees of CJ Logistics, a large South Korean delivery company, gather at the local welfare centre. A truck pulls up and the group, mostly men in their 70s, leap to their feet to unload parcels. “It’s far better than staying at home,” says Eun Ho Lee, a chirpy 77-year-old who in his younger days ran a bedlinen business. Like so many of his generation in this country, he has no pension and lives mainly on his savings, so the 800,000-900,000 won ($700-800) he makes from this job are welcome. He cannot imagine himself ever leaving. There are drawbacks to older workers, admits a local supervisor; they carry fewer boxes and are sometimes slower than their younger colleagues. But since the company pays its employees per delivery, that does not matter, and the unhurried chattiness of this side of the business, the “Senior Parcel Delivery Service”, seems to appeal to customers. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Greg Bell: You Can Pretend to Care, But You Can't Pretend to Show Up]( The Desert News, Utah [Editor's note: Greg Bell is the former Lieutenant Governor of Utah.] Last week, my daughter Eliza surprised us by inviting her siblings and our grandchildren to come work in our yard — to help their aged parents. Despite many summer conflicts, a small army of the next two generations appeared with tools in hand. In an hour and a half, they cleaned our windows, completely cleaned and mopped out our garage, weeded the flowerbeds, pruned out-of-control shrubs and bushes, sawed firewood and did many more big and little tasks we needed done. Above, you see 11-year-old Benny, Abe and Oliver (with safety glasses, mind you) cutting firewood. I taught them how to operate the power saw safely. They cut up a pile of tree limbs and had a blast. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- Questions? 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