Communities around the country are given a hand by national AmeriCorps volunteers everyday.
Knox County is no exception and some of the AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers this week are spearheading a food and clothing drive that’s a joint effort between Knox College’s Kleine Center for Community Service and the Regional Office of Education.
It starts on April 5 when students will disperse into the community to deliver paper bags to neighborhood houses and explain that one week later on April 12 the volunteers will return to hopefully collect the same bag that residents will have left out with food and clothing.
Cole Nelson is a VISTA volunteer acting as Education Resource Coordinator with the Regional Office of Education’s alternative education system.
Nelson tells WGIL this drive is in part designed to draw attention to the importance of donating food and clothing.
“Part of it is also to draw attention to the importance of national service and volunteer service in the area,” he says. “We have over 100 AmeriCorps volunteers in the area.”
He adds that includes senior AmeriCorps volunteers and others.
The drive is being coordinated with a proclamation Mayor John Pritchard will be reading at Monday’s Galesburg City Council meeting.
Pritchard is joining more than 100 city and county leaders nationwide that will be officially recognizing the impact of national service to local communities.
