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Show TSv4 . ..k -If LI Vcnl group ot Youth Challenger Program volunteers while In is Marv Pizza from lUFamliw i iitT , k V. '"' ' " ''4 Wsffl Vounf eers 1Korang in Price Area Frve. I'tah Betsy Merrick i s i certified teacher from Wjirton. LLC, working in ; iY-Mi J"J Emory Counties. V is lift, vmpassionate aiul likable. Price is a booming coal town of 7,000, with the largest percentage of Chicuno population popula-tion in I't.ih. Hotel rooms are scarce here and almost impossible im-possible to find alter sundown. An hour's drive away and you are deep into the semidesert. At 24. why would Betsy forgo the comfort and cultural abundance of the nation's capital for the twentieth largest tow n in I'tah? Ms. Merrick could give you plenty of reasons. She is a VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America). VISTA is an ACTION program utilizing full-time volunteers assigned for a year or twcat the request of public or private nonprofit organizations organiza-tions to help the needy in locally sponsored projects. More than A .100 VISTA's are currently serving nationwide on mi annual budget of $22 million. About eleven percent of these volunteers are age 55 or older. VISTA is this year celebrating its tenth anniversary. anniver-sary. In Utah, there are presently 77 VISTA volunteers at six projects. ACTION is the Federal Agency for Volunteer Services, Ser-vices, created by the President and Congress in 1971. More than 177.300 ACTION volunteers volun-teers are currently serving worldwide, among them 6. 900 Peace Corps volunteers in 68 developing nations. In addition to Betsy Herrick, there are other VISTA's working in the area: Carl Olsen. 6. from Price, a retired college professor teaches art to coal miners, farmers, teenagers teen-agers and elderly throughout Carbon and Emery Counties. Kllen van Otterloo, 2-4, from Denver, helps the elementary students in Emery County. Seven mor VISTA's are working in the satellite learning learn-ing centers on Navajo Indian reservation near Arizona, a-ssisting a-ssisting the native Americans in preschool adult education, legal service and mental health. Aside from the language lang-uage barrier, these volunteers travel hours each day just to get to a grocery store or another settlement. Some live in hogans without electricity and water. They are: Thyrsa Clark, 60, from Olympia, Washington; Chris Cole. 22, from Boulder, Colorado; Susan Ford, 23, from Pittsburgh; Irene Nakai, 23, a Navajo from Bluff; Warren Reck. 70, also from Bluff, and Julie and Mark Tonge from Denver. Betsy and her co-workers receive about $200 a month for housing, food and other expenses. An additional $50 per month will be paid to them upon completion of their service. "They're doing a tremendous tremen-dous job, bringing happiness to elderly and young alike," comments the Emery County Commissioner Gardell Snow. "We support them all the way." Sherrill Buge, VISTA super visor, could not agree more and sums it up: "Yes, they're just a great bunch to work with." Ms. Burge came from Phoenix 16 years ago, but by the intimacy with which she talks to the locals, you would think she was born here. Even the police know her well, for she often stops by, helping out the youngsters who came into conflict with the law and need someone to counsel them. Ms. Burge also directs the Youth Challenge Program (YCP), part of ACTION Agency Agen-cy as well. This program utilizes mostly high school students between ages of 14 and 21 who work part-time for a year in their high school communities and receive academic aca-demic credit for their work. They get no pay beyond an occasional meal on their work sites or a travel allowance. Through the program, the volunteers have an opportunity opportun-ity for personal growth, career planning and a chance to prove themselves. In one YCP project, six girls are released from the College of Eastern Utah to work at the Emery County Nursing Home in Ferron. After the patients have been readied for them by half a dozen volunteers from the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), still another ACTION program, the YCP girls will help the elderly with their haircuts and hairdos and spend time with them to alleviate their loneliness. In another, ten Youth Challenge Program volunteers work with teachers and their elementary students at the East Carbon High School. As observed by a recent visitor to the school, the youngsters thoroughly enjoy the assistance assis-tance from YCP volunteers that could have been, and in a sense are, their brothers and sisters. Betsy Herrick coordinates both Youth Challenge projects full-or part-time and suggests the academic credit these volunteers should get for their work. All projects are funded by ACTION Agency and sponsored sponsor-ed by the College of Eastern Utah under its president Dean McDonald. In the opinion of Sherrill Burge, this is the first and only integrated VISTAYouth ChallengeRetired Chal-lengeRetired Senior Volunteer Volun-teer project in the region, perhaps in the nation. The sponsor, volunteers and their supervisors have a common goal: to help the needy. Persons age 20 or older, interested in joining VISTA or Peace Corps, may call collect Mr. Hall at (303) 837-4173, or write for details and an application to: ACTION Recruitment Re-cruitment Office, 514 Prudential Pruden-tial Plaza, Denver, Colorado 80202. |
