Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 17, 1994 TAG: 9410180058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
And unlike the Peace Corps, they are doing it at home.
At a soon-to-close Navy base, 233 young people have pledged a year of their lives to the National Civilian Community Corps. It's part of President Clinton's larger national service initiative, AmeriCorps.
They work for minimum wage, free housing, uniforms, health care and a $4,725 education grant. They also do it for themselves.
Michael Williams, 21, of Durham, N.C., spent a year after high school graduation working in a pizza parlor before he joined up.
``It took me a long time to figure out where I would go when I got out of high school,'' he said. ``Now I see myself going almost anywhere.''
He recently spent five weeks painting and restoring exhibits aboard the USS Yorktown, the vintage aircraft carrier that is a state-run tourist attraction in Charleston Harbor.
``I wanted to challenge myself,'' said a mud-splattered Amanda Colton as she paused from stacking sandbags along the Ashley River. ``It's hard getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning. But I have never said I wanted to quit.''
Colton, 18, of Summerville, joined to put money away for college.
Congress created the $21 million NCCC and AmeriCorps last year. About 1,000 youths, between 18 and 24, are attending four training camps in Maryland, Colorado, California and South Carolina for the NCCC.
They work for government or nonprofit agencies in education, the environment, social services and public safety, and are trained in everything from landscaping to working with the elderly.
Colton and her crew filled and piled 9,000 sandbags to shore up an old boat landing at Drayton Hall, an 18th century plantation on the National Register of Historic Places.
They learned a little about engineering, a little about the environment and a little about life in Colonial times.
``With every project we do, I want to change my college major,'' Colton said.
At the Charleston Navy Base, corps members live in an old barracks, getting physical training each morning and a midnight curfew. Campus director Jeff Biel is a Navy officer who came out of retirement to head the center.
``It's a new start for me, too, but this is something I believe in,'' he said. ``There's a lot of motivation in these kids to change the world.''
Ryan Land, 22, of Orlando, Fla., couldn't decide between the Peace Corps and law school after college, so he joined the NCCC.
``I've learned a lot about myself ... I looked at this like the Peace Corps. It is a pioneer program and something we could be very proud of.''
by CNB