Colorado AmeriCorps Alums

1) Obama takes office in just one week… MAKE HISTORY by sending our new President a personally signed card!
(Or, you can choose to congratulate Senator McCain on a well-run campaign.)

AmeriCorps Alums, JackCards and Oh My Word have joined forces to welcome our new President into the White House — and we want YOU to help!  These one-of-a-kind cards contain personal messages from folks all across the world, expressing their hopes for the 44th President of the United States — and just in time for Inauguration!

ORDER YOUR CARD NOW!!! 

2) Serve in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service project on Monday, January 19, 2009!

Last week President Elect Obama issued a national call to service on this important day. The administration’s new service website, http://usaservice.org/, lists projects that you can serve with across the country.

AmeriCorps Alums across the country are participating in MLK Day projects! Chapters in Detroit, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Boston, Grand Junction CO, Eureka CA and Chicago have received grants to lead projects on this important day of service.

3) Vote in the “Change.org Ideas for Change in America” contest 

The Change.org competition was created as a response to President-elect Obama’s call for greater citizen involvement in government.  It asks citizens to submit and vote for “ideas for change” in categories such as education, immigration, and global warming. 

The last day of voting for the Ideas for Change in America competition is today! On Friday we will present the top 10 ideas to the Obama administration at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. We’ll then connect the winning ideas to leading nonprofits and launch a series of national advocacy campaigns to turn each idea into federal policy.

Check out one contender, an education-focused national AmeriCorps

program called Citizen Schools. Click here to vote!  Today is the last day to vote!

View their video  AmeriCorps Alums YouTube Channel.

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Join our Facebook group to keep informed about upcoming events and national service news!

Click here to join today.  See you online.

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Dear Friends,

President-Elect Obama’s upcoming inaugural address will not only make history for America, it sets the stage for all of us to make history too. We can’t simply wait for what he is going to say on January 20th, we need to show him. Add your name to our petition to encourage Barack Obama make a call to service a prominent part of his inaugural address:

www.servenext.org/a_new_call_to_service/

If we are able to get enough signatures, we will show the Obama team, the press, and the rest of congress how much Americans want to be united and called upon. With this historic moment around the corner, please ask President-Elect-Obama to make service a key part of his inaugural address:

www.servenext.org/a_new_call_to_service/

This petition campaign is truly grassroots. It depends upon national service supporters like you adding your name and spreading the word. With your voice and your help we can show the vast support – name by name – for Barack Obama to make service a prominent issue on January 20th. We need your voice to make this happen:

www.servenext.org/a_new_call_to_service/

With the country watching, a call to service can dramatically improve the future by uniting the country in collective work. We must show how important this is and how willing people are to get involved. Encourage President-Elect Obama to inspire a new era of service.

Thanks for advancing this cause,

Zach Maurin

ServeNext.org

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The Colorado VISTA office is holding a low-cost recipe contest (think potatoes) for national service participants. As Alums, we’ve all been there…trying to cook on the living stipend. So, what recipes do you have up your sleeve to share with AmeriCorps members?

This is an Event attached to the AmeriSpuds GROUP on Facebook (but you can submit recipes directly to AmeriSpuds@AOL.com).

This contest is a fun way to get Alums engaged in the larger National Service arena – the recipe book will be put online and available to people throughout the United States.

CONTEST: Submit your best, original, low-cost recipe(s) for inclusion in the upcoming National Service “Cheap Eats” Recipe Compendium (cook book) that will feature the best dishes made from inexpensive and easy-to-find ingredients. Entries (not to be confused with entrees) must be submitted by 5 PM MST, July 31, 2008 to AmeriSpuds@aol.com. Recipes for appetizers, entrees, side dishes, soups, and desserts will be accepted. Each recipe must be named, original, unpublished, the sole property of submitter, and not previously submitted in any other contest.

Please include instructions for both preparation and cooking. Ingredients must be listed in exact common U.S. household measurements in order of use. Recipe must include step-by-step preparation instructions, and must include preparation time. All recipes must include serving size, serving suggestions, and number of servings. Photos of finished dishes accepted. Please also provide submitter’s name, recipe name, location, contact info, and national service affiliation info with each entry. Judging will be done by a panel of rank amateurs. Each Contest Entry will be judged based on the following criteria: Flavor (40%), Low Cost (30%), Ease of Preparation (20%), and Judges’ Bias (10%). AmeriSpuds has no obligation to prepare and taste every recipe.

The top Contest Entry will be selected to receive the Grand Prize (as yet unknown). Odds of being selected a Recipe Contest winner depend upon the number and quality of all eligible entries. Contest rules, including end date, are subject to change at the whim of AmeriSpuds, with little or no notice to participants.

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“I think they (AmeriCorps members) are awesome,” said Clarksville Alderman Mike Russell, also the town’s emergency services manager. “I can literally tell you that if it was not for them running the City Hall end, we would be much worse off.”

AmeriCorps unit helps river town take a stand - Midwest flooding- msnbc.com

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This summer Colorado AmeriCorps Alums will be taking a road trip to Durango to work on the Colorado Trail!

One of the many things that makes Colorado unique is its easy access to beautiful natural settings. One piece of accessing these is Colorado’s trail system. In 2008 the Alums annual service trip will be helping to maintain the Colorado Trail near Durango, Colorado with local partner Trails 2000. This will be a fun experience and allow Alums to reach out beyond the Denver Metro area.

Dates and locations
Trip Meeting: Monday, July 14, 2008, 6pm, Location TBD.
Trip: Friday, July 25- Sunday, July 27, 2008 @ The Colorado Trail near Durango, Colorado

Work and Accommodations
Helping to maintain the Colorado Trail can be tough work, here is what volunteers should keep in mind…
? Supplies and food are provided for volunteers
? The altitude is about 11,000 feet
? Horses carry volunteer supplies to the worksite
? Volunteers bike into the work site. We encourage volunteers to bring their own or borrow mountain bikes. There is an option to rent a bike at an additional cost.
? Volunteers will be camping and are expected to try to acquire their own camping gear such as tents and sleeping bags. Trails 2000 will supply a packing list.

Getting there
Volunteers will carpool from Denver (or other locations) to arrive at the site by 3pm Friday, July 25 and stay through noon Sunday, July 27, 2008. Should volunteers want to extend their visit, they can discuss this at the trip meeting. In order to save costs we are asking volunteers to donate use of their vehicles, drivers will be given money for gas. We anticipate three volunteers in each vehicle. Round trip mileage will be about 900 miles.

Fundraising
Volunteers will be asked to fundraise $60. There is an additional cost of renting a bike of $25 for the entirety of the trip. (This rate has been negotiated down from $55 per day to $30 per day; Alums is covering a portion of the rental cost.) All fundraising will be due prior to the trip meeting by July 1st. This will assist alums to:
? Rent bikes
? Cover gas and travel expenses
? Make a donation to Trails 2000, our local partner

Waiver
Trails 2000 will require volunteers to sign a waiver before they begin volunteer work.

Relevant links
Trails 2000: http://www.trails2000.org/
Colorado Trail Foundation: http://www.coloradotrail.org

Questions? Comments? Want to sign-up (there are only 10 spots!)? Contact Alexis St. Juliana at astjuliana@hotmail.com or 720-206-4822

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We have received a request from the Salvation Army to ask if AmeriCorps members and Alums might be available to assist in some of the logistics of food distribution (packing, sorting, etc.) to assist the residents of Windsor, Colorado.If you are able to assist in this recovery effort, contact Salvation Army Envoy Gerald Koch at 303.909.2691.  

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FREE hardback books for AmeriCorps Members (VISTA, State/National, EAP, etc.)

Colorado’s AmeriCorps Alums is making available free hardback books to current AmeriCorps members. We’re starting with about 500 volumes, mostly fiction, but there are also cookbooks, biographies, personal finance, religion, etc. (As we get more donations, we’ll probably have paperbacks as well.)

Members must come to the CNCS State Office at the Federal Center (off Kipling just south of 6th Avenue – Building 46, Rm. 117). The books are free, but if you’d like to drop off good quality books you no longer need, that’d be great too! Your gifts to AmeriCorps Alums are tax deductible. (Unfortunately, we cannot ship books to those of you who are out of town, but maybe you can get an AmeriCorps colleague to do that for you.)

We have coffee (and chocolate too!) while you cruise the stacks.

We’re typically open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, but to make sure someone is here, you might want to call in advance (either Dan at 303 236-2034 or Bruce at 303 236-2035).

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Yesterday, AmeriCorps Alums hosted the 2nd Annual Life After AmeriCorps Conference. Conference organizer, Erica Seversen, described how successful the event was: “Over 70 participants attended, and the written and verbal feedback were both extremely positive.” 

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At our Tastes Sip & Bid Fundraiser last week, it was brought to my attention that some Alums did not see the great story Anderson Cooper did about NCCC’s work in the Gulf Coast. National service programs have contributed an incredible amount of service to Gulf Coast recovery efforts. Here are some of the numbers: 3,554,953 - Service hours; 93,754 - National Service Participants; 261,668 - Volunteers Leveraged. So, I thought I would post a link to the story here for everyone to see. Click here to see the news coverage of NCCC. 

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