AmeriCorps leads Habitat service projects at Children's Beach House and Howard T. Ennis

This year, AmeriCorps celebrates its 20th anniversary. As part of the celebration, each AmeriCorps program highlights 20 service projects that show how AmeriCorps members are front and center in getting things done in their communities. Global Youth Service Day is the most recent.

By leading volunteers at events such as the Dogfish Head Day of Benevolence, Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, Make a Difference Day and the upcoming build on Legislative Mall, members raise awareness of housing issues. The volunteers they lead participate in a proven solution to substandard housing conditions.

Sussex County Habitat AmeriCorps members served April 11 in two locations. In the morning, AmeriCorps led an effort at the Children's Beach House in Lewes. The CBH sits on the bayfront, and as a result of this year's winter storms, the property required cleanup and landscaping a great deal more involved than in previous years. AmeriCorps stepped in to lead the cleanup assuring that the haven for children with challenges is ready for the summer camp season just around the corner.

The afternoon was spent leading a group of students at the Howard T. Ennis School in Georgetown. Enjoying the warm spring weather, the teams put together a project of painting containers, then filling them with flowering plants to be placed, as gifts, at Habitat homes.

Ennis students had a great time carefully decorating their assigned containers then, excitedly, selected their favorite flowers to plant. As the students departed, AmeriCorps cheered them on with, "Thank you, Ennis Eagles," and all were reminded, once again, that anyone can serve.

In addition to the work accomplished in Sussex County Habitat, teams from Central Delaware and New Castle County also led projects at their own affiliates, reinforcing the statewide impact Habitat and AmeriCorps have in Delaware.