Sisters grad has adventurous stint with AmeriCorps

During 10 months of duty aiding communities across the country through AmeriCorps, Sisters High School graduate Hillary Johnson saw places and met faces that are now forever etched in her memory. And despite long hours and hard work, in trying conditions, she can't wait to do it again.

"I got to do and see things that most people don't. You're getting all these skills, developing relationships with people all over the country," says Hillary.

While many of her friends were touring college campuses during their junior year of high school, Hillary rose to the call of a visiting AmeriCorps recruiter and applied for their National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). It was a natural step for her, having spent two of her summers working with the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC). About the time she graduated last year, she got her acceptance letter and her first assignment: Vinton, Iowa, for training.

In a weird twist of events, while Hillary and her team prepared to provide disaster relief for others, they weathered a devastating storm themselves. As warning sirens blared, Hillary received a cautionary text early one morning. She remembers stepping outside to investigate. "The air was so thick you could reach out and touch it. It was unbelievably hot and there were rapid flashes of lightning. A lawn chair rolled by."

Her crew took cover in the tunnels beneath their campus.

As tornado-strength straight winds gusted above, says Hillary, "It sounded like people were bowling over our heads."

The roof of the main building blew off, and most of the team's belongings were damaged by flooding. They spent the next few days helping with after-storm cleanup in nearby Cedar Rapids.

On another assignment, in Cincinnati, Hillary helped build a 1,000-foot trail around the Gorman Heritage Farm, an educational farm where inner-city kids visit to learn how food gets to their table, and she took in a Reds baseball game.

In Iowa, she scraped and repainted a community swimming pool in 100-degree weather and high humidity.

On Michigan's upper peninsula, which Hillary calls "one of the most beautiful places" she'd ever seen, she spent eight weeks providing daycare at a short-staffed YMCA, and explored a lighthouse on Lake Superior.

She assisted tornado victims in Joplin, Missouri, firefighters in Texas and she provided flood relief on the east coast. All the while, as a designated AmeriCorps "ambassador," she sought out speaking opportunities at schools and other organizations.

But her most poignant memories came while working in Minot, North Dakota following the flooding of the Soris River in June. "It was one of the hardest, but one of the best," says Hillary.

When flood waters receded, sewers remained backed up, leaving 5,400 homes damaged. As her team gutted houses down to the two-by-fours, Hillary got to know the residents who had not only been displaced, but also emotionally devastated. "All their stuff was destroyed," she recalls. "This was where they lived.

"There was one family - the wife had cancer. She wanted her house finished before she died, so she'd know her family was safe."

Her team was granted a three-day excursion to South Dakota, where she visited Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse memorial and Devil's Tower. But it's the people whose stories she heard firsthand she says that she'll remember the most. "It was heartwarming to see how much it was helping. There were a lot of tears and thank you's."

The AmeriCorps NCCC program is a full-time, team-based residential program for men and women ages 18-24. They work in partnership with non-profits to provide disaster relief, environmental stewardship, infrastructure improvement, urban and rural development and energy conservation with the mission of strengthening communities and developing leaders. Teams typically spend six to eight weeks with each sponsor organization.

Hillary's now back with her family in Sisters while completing a two-month CNA program at Pilot Butte Rehabilitation Center in Bend. In February, she shared stories of her AmeriCorps experiences with juniors at Sisters High School.

She hopes to hear soon whether she has been accepted to another year-long non-profit program, City Year. It's a full-time, education-based assignment in Boston, tutoring kids who are deemed at-risk for dropping out of school. With the tuition scholarship that would earn her, Hillary plans to pursue her RN degree.

For more information about AmeriCorps, visit www.americorps.gov.