A dozen volunteers from Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina and West Virginia have made a difference in recent weeks, filling sandbags during recent storms in Columbia and clearing out defense space around the homes of low-income and disabled residents in the Groveland area.
The volunteers, including Will Ergastolo, 23, from Chicago, Caleb Jackson, 18, from Atlanta, Hannah Blakely, 18, from Wheeling, and Ellie Boye, 22, from Davidson, have been staying at Camp Tuolumne Trails, which serves special needs. camp from ages 8 to 80 on 80 acres outside Groveland.
“This is the sixth time we have partnered with AmeriCorps,” said Jerry Baker, president of Camp Tuolumne Trails, Tuesday in a telephone interview. “They help us get ready for camp every year. This year, what we are doing is different, we are expanding our scope to work off-site.”
AmeriCorps and its National Civilian Community Corps program partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in an effort to involve volunteers ages 18 to 24 in team-based community service projects across the United States. The goal is to provide young adults with opportunities and experiences in serving disaster-affected communities while gaining professional development experience.
Ergastolo, Jackson, Blakely, Boye and other AmeriCorps volunteers arrived at Camp Tuolumne Trails 10 last week and intend to leave in early April, Baker said. The camp has eight cabins, a pool, a dozen buildings altogether, and a mile of accessible trails around it.
Camp Tuolumne Trails staff bills AmeriCorps volunteer defense space work in the Groveland area as a partnership with the Groveland-based nonprofit Southside Community Connections.
Residences eligible for defense clearance by AmeriCorps volunteers were selected based on the homeowner’s income level and mobility capabilities, Camp Tuolumne Trails staff said.
AmeriCorps volunteers were trained in January in chainsaw safety through the Wildland S-212 Chainsaw certification program with the federal Forest Service, after which they spent several weeks clearing camp undergrowth and helping build greenhouses.
Volunteers then began clearing bushes in February on properties belonging to 10 low-income and/or sedentary homeowners, designated by Southside Community Connections, in preparation for the upcoming fire season.
Earlier this month, while Tuolumne County residents queued for free sandbags in a Columbia Airport parking lot, Ergastolo, Jackson, Blakely, Boye, and other AmeriCorps volunteers helped lift, shovel, fill, and load sandbags from a 22-dismantled sandpile. by a dump truck driver that day, before one of the recent atmospheric river storms that brought heavy rains and a destructive, explosive thunderstorm that triggered the tornadoes that were confirmed that weekend.
Also this week, Camp Tuolumne Trails is touting a recent grant and a separate $45,000 donation that will allow the camp to install three new ceiling-mounted lift systems to further assist campers with disabilities.
“We have campers coming in with mobility issues,” Baker, president of Camp Tuolumne Trails, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “Some of the campers use wheelchairs. We are one of the few camps in the country with no age restrictions. So some of our campers are large individuals who need help getting from bed to the restroom and shower, and back to bed.
The new lift system at Camp Tuolumne Trails was made possible primarily by a $38,655 grant from the Christopher Foundation National Paralysis Resource Center and Dana Reeve, Baker said.
The foundation is named after the late actor Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in four films and was paralyzed when he fell from a horse in an equestrian competition in May 1995, and his wife, Dana, who died of lung cancer in May 2006. Reeve died of heart failure in 2006. 2004.
McIlwain Mobility Solutions from Rancho Cordova completed installing the new mobility system at Camp Tuolumne Trails last week and the final cost was about $45,000, Baker said. McIlwain Mobility Solutions is donating $7,000 to cover the balance.
“To my knowledge, we are the only camp in the state, and possibly the country, with this type of camper mobility system,” Baker said Tuesday. “This opened up our camp to a whole new level for campers who previously felt uncomfortable that we could accommodate their needs. We strive to be the most accommodating place on the planet.”
Camp Tuolumne Trails was founded in 2006, opened in 2008, and has hosted more than 7,500 special needs campers since then, Baker said. The camp focuses on campers with special medical needs, including 9 year olds with muscular dystrophy, 16 year olds with Down syndrome, and 80 year olds with developmental disabilities.
