Conservation Corps Iowa celebrates AmeriCorps Week with community education event

PRESS RELEASE
Conservation Corps Iowa
March 13, 2012

For immediate release

Contact:   Candice McElroy
651.209.9900 x24; candice.mcelroy@conservationcorps.org
www.conservationcorps.org

Ames, Iowa— Conservation Corps Iowa will join the nationwide celebration of AmeriCorps Week with a community education event on Saturday, March 17, 10 a.m. to noon at McFarland Park in Ames.

Bring the kids but leave your pocketbook at home – this event offers family fun and outdoor education for free! AmeriCorps members will be leading activities including a scavenger hunt, rock polishing, pet rock decorating and making birdfeeders, and providing environmental education with a tree identification hike, a wilderness survival challenge and a Leave No Trace presentation.

McFarland Park is a 200-acre area that offers visitors a variety of ecotypes to explore including tallgrass prairie, woodland and stream habitats. Event partners include AmeriCorps, Conservation Corps Iowa and Story County Conservation Board.

AmeriCorps Week, March 10-18, is an annual recruitment and recognition event to demonstrate AmeriCorps’ impact on critical issues, bring more Americans into service and thank the community partners who make AmeriCorps possible. AmeriCorps is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service. americorps.gov/about/americorpsweek 

Since 1994, 775,000 men and women have joined AmeriCorps, and they have given more than one billion hours of service to their country. In 2011, more than 80,000 AmeriCorps members recruited 3.4 million community volunteers to serve alongside them in some 15,000 nonprofit, faith-based and community organizations across the country.

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About Conservation Corps Iowa: A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Conservation Corps Iowa provides hands-on environmental stewardship and service-learning opportunities for young adults (ages 18-25). They accomplish conservation, natural-resource management and emergency response work throughout Iowa and surrounding states. conservationcorps.org

About the Corporation for National and Community Service:  The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America programs, and leads President Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. NationalService.gov