AmeriCorps volunteers renovate Bangor apartments

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Anyone who regularly passes through the intersection of Stillwater Avenue and Broadway in Bangor is familiar with the large building on the corner across from Broadway Park.

For some time it’s been in dire need of repair, but now, thanks to the efforts of two groups of AmeriCorps Maine Service Corps volunteers, the building has been refurbished and awaits the arrival of new tenants.

Nine AmeriCorps volunteers picked up where their counterparts left off last year, and have renovated four apartments.

“We’ve made this building very happy,” reports AmeriCorps volunteer Kim DeBeck of Brewer.

Last year’s crew did all the demolition work, she explained, and this year’s crew did the finish work, resulting in “brand-spanking new apartments” that DeBeck believes “will be a great asset to the community.”

New tenants are expected to arrive in mid-April, joining three businesses that already occupy part of the building.

“Everything is so beautiful,” DeBeck said of the apartments. “And it will be nice to drive by, at night, to see windows with lights on, and to know that we did that.”

Listening to DeBeck describe the community service work these individuals have performed this year practically leaves one breathless!

She is obviously thrilled with the work she and her fellow AmeriCorps volunteers have done, and are doing, to improve our community.

The 2001-2002 AmeriCorps members working with DeBeck are William Hafford of Monmouth, Maggie Hanna of Round Pond, Cara Hussey of LaGrange, Areona Scriver of Kansas City, Kan., and Bangor residents Jeremy Bean, Scott Carpenter, John Franklin and Chris Foley.

Since finishing with the building at 293 Broadway, DeBeck said, the AmeriCorps volunteers “are looking for another building to do.

Coastal Enterprises Inc. sponsors the AmeriCorps program, which enables it to work on housing with AmeriCorps workers, resulting in great savings that can be passed on to potential tenants and homeowners.

“CEI purchases the house and we fix it up,” DeBeck said.

But the AmeriCorps workers are not remaining idle while waiting for another building to come along.

Instead, they are doing what they can to help spruce up the city for spring.

“We just worked with Bangor Parks and Rec Department and raked acorns at the cemetery on Finson Road,” DeBeck said.

“Usually, it takes a few months to do that, but we did half the graveyard in one day,” DeBeck said. And she learned a nature lesson in the process.

She wanted to know why the acorns had to be raked, and not just left on the ground.

“I asked the man we were working with if the deer liked them,” DeBeck said. “I guess they do, but he told me we have to rake the acorns because acid in the acorns gets into the ground and kills the grass.

The group plans to return to the cemetery to finish that job, but they’ve been out and about elsewhere, too.

“Last week we cleaned up Mount Hope Avenue,” DeBeck said.

“So if people saw us picking up trash, now they know what we were doing. We got 18 bags, just on Mount Hope Avenue.

“We picked up four mufflers, two tires, a tarp and half a dishwasher! We were glad to be able to do that, because we know it is hard for the city crews to try and get all that done.”

The AmeriCorps volunteers also spent time recently at the Maine Discovery Museum in downtown Bangor, building a skeleton for a pterodactyl, she said.

“That was really fun, and it will look great when the kids finish it with papier mache.” The pterodactyl’s name, she said, is Daryl.

DeBeck said the AmeriCorps volunteers are also helping reclaim and refurbish “a rock wall along the parking lot” between the Bangor fire station and the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter on Main Street.

“We’re cutting the brush back and rebuilding the wall,” she said.

The volunteers continue to work with the United Way of Eastern Maine and next week will be manning telephones and tallying pledges during one of three days of a radio-telethon for Children’s Miracle Network of Eastern Maine Healthcare.

That event takes place 6 a.m.-9 p.m. both Thursday, March 21, and Friday, March 22, and 6 a.m.-noon Saturday, March 23, at the Bangor Mall.

According to the AmeriCorps Web site, this year more than 600 people have chosen to spend a year serving communities in our state.

In exchange for that commitment, they receive an education award of up to $4,725 to help pay for college or pay back student loans.

To date, more than 1,100 Maine residents have qualified for education awards totaling more than $4.2 million.

But, listening to DeBeck, and the enthusiasm she has for the program, it is easy to believe when she says, “You don’t do it for the money.

“It’s not for the pay. It’s for all the love and experience, and all you gain out of this.

“I’d rather not be paid a lot, and do everything that I’m doing right now.”

If you are interested in being part of this rewarding opportunity, call AmeriCorps site supervisor Robert Cyr at 945-5090.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.