Where I Stand: AmeriCorps is volunteers helping volunteers help others

Monday, Nov. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

GENERATION X? If the young AmeriCorps volunteers working to recondition the home and yard at the corner of E and Van Buren are of Generation X, then bring on Generation Y and Z. We need some more people like these volunteers as soon as possible.

They are a team of one dozen led by John Yao and come here from 11 different states. Seven young women and five young men are in Las Vegas doing the kind of hard labor that will help feed the homeless and provide care and comfort for their children.

President Clinton proposed AmeriCorps during his 1992 campaign. He told us that "national service will be America at its best -- building community, offering opportunity and rewarding responsibility. National service is a challenge for Americans from every background and way of life, and it values something far more than money."

Chad Scheuerell of Platteville, Wis., heard that statement when studying history at Loras College. After graduating, he became a corpsmember and will use the $4,725 earned this year to pay off loans he needed for college. Then he will probably become a history teacher.

The money held for the corpsmembers until they finish their assignment of a year can be directed to colleges they are entering or have recently attended and owe money. Why is Chad doing this kind of service? "I believe in serving others, and working here as part of my assignment is very rewarding."

This AmeriCorps team is in its second phase and next will probably be on assignment in California, working on a safety, education or environmental project. During the next month, they will concentrate all of their skills and efforts on helping Catholic Workers Julia Occhiogrosso Cavalier and her husband, Gary, help others who depend upon their kindness, understanding and necessities of life.

For 10 years Julia has been working in West Las Vegas where thousands of homeless people of all races and religions have benefited from her efforts. She and her Catholic Worker volunteers have provided clothes for the cold and food for the hungry. Yes, and many times guided them to friendly doctors and pharmacists for badly needed care and medicine.

I recall one man who came through the food line who was dying from cancer. He lived out his final days in the house at E and Van Buren. The volunteers made him a casket. Father Louis Vitale said the funeral Mass and the man was buried with dignity.

Last week, Julia spoke with praise for the AmeriCorps volunteers now working on the home where food is prepared and children are cared for during the day. "They are great. The volunteers are highly motivated and easy to work with at all times." These are strong words coming from a lady who does much more work helping others than she does talking about work.

Yao told me that he loves working on this project. "I was extremely taken by this house and found it warm and filled with spiritual people." Yao likes the assignment because it is an "unmet human needs project. We are doing something worthwhile. Gary and Julia are dedicated people," he remarked.

Truly this AmeriCorps team and the Catholic Workers are a match made in heaven. Well, maybe not heaven, but at least in the mind of some good person who brought them together.

But what makes this team of young people from so many different backgrounds get along so well? Yao quickly points out: "We have one common ground and that is community service."

Because the AmeriCorps volunteers receive $360 a month for their necessities and later have $4,725 applied toward their higher education, some very conservative and sometimes unthinking writers and politicians have claimed it will kill volunteerism. Corpsmember Ian Moon challenges that kind of thinking. "It promotes getting involved with helping others and meeting the needs of communities. This gets people used to working to help others as a way of life," Moon told me.

If John Yao and his crew are an example of what AmeriCorps is all about, then it is helping develop a generation that will become givers and not takers. They could someday be called the All-American Generation.

Because of AmeriCorps, things are going to be just a little bit better for Julia, Gary, local Catholic Worker volunteers and the people they continue to help day after day.

So to John Yao and Corpsmembers Brandi Clark, 18, Akron, Ohio; Rachel Anne Coleman, 20, Rochester, N.Y.; Michael Kittel, 25, Pennsauken, N.J.; Litonlya M. Lester, 21, Montezuma, Ga.; Ian Moon, 23, Atlanta; Trisha Roberts, 19, Chazy, N.Y.; Marques A. Rounds, 19, San Francisco; Javier Ruiz, 20, Waynesville, Mo.; Chad J. Scheuerell, 22, Platteville; Heather Schictel, 22, Burke, Va.; Emily S. Sly, 18, Rapid City, S.D.; and Karen L. Walther, 22, San Antonio, Texas, we join Gary and Julia in saying thanks.