First-Ever National AmeriCorps Week Kicks Off in Portland;
Artists Reflect on Community Service Experiences at Multimedia Event

May 7, 2007

A half-million Americans have served their communities through AmeriCorps, the domestic version of the Peace Corps. To mark that milestone, the Corporation for National and Community Service—the federal agency that oversees AmeriCorps—has declared May 13–20, 2007 as the first-ever National AmeriCorps Week. Portland will mark the occasion with a multimedia symposium on May 14–15 at Portland State University’s Smith Memorial Center.

Drawing together 200 participants from Oregon and Washington, the National Service Symposium will focus on the AmeriCorps experience through the lens of the literary, visual, and performing arts. The event showcases winners of a contest that invites AmeriCorps members and other service participants to submit projects inspired by their experience. Accepted submissions are published in an anthology distributed at the event, and an evening banquet features the top projects. Other highlights of the symposium include a ceremonial art gallery opening and a performance showcase featuring AmeriCorps-inspired videos and songs.

When all the participants gather to share what they’ve created, it becomes apparent that the sum of their local service is making a remarkable difference in the world. This is especially true here in the Northwest, which is one of the leaders in numbers of national service participants.

Here’s a glimpse at four of the artists and their projects that will be shared at the symposium:

• Josh Proehl and Ellene Smith are AmeriCorps*VISTA members and videographers who have created a mini-documentary featuring stories told by a number of their fellow members from programs across Oregon and Washington.
• Jeff “Mokst’Leloos” Painter is a tribal member and one of the cultural consultants of the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes. He is a traditional singer, storyteller, counselor, trainer, and activist. At the symposium, Jeff will perform a traditional “Honor Song” and a poem that reflect on his community service experiences.
• Kristin Chatfield is an AmeriCorps member who serves as an economic development educator across Oregon. For her visual arts symposium piece, she asked representatives from the 168 rural communities she serves to send her postcards or photographs, which she has incorporated into a 3-D mobile that provides a quick glimpse of the small towns along the roads she travels.

AmeriCorps is a network of local, state, and national service programs that connects more than 70,000 Americans each year in intensive service to meet our country’s critical needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment. AmeriCorps members serve with more than 3,000 nonprofits, public agencies, and faith-based and community organizations. More information is available at www.americorps.gov/about/media_kit/factsheets.asp.

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