100 AmeriCorps Volunteers Take Oath of Community Service

AmeriCorps, President Clinton’s national service program, kicked off its third year in Los Angeles on Friday with a ceremony swearing in nearly 100 newly enlisted members in Pershing Square.

The 20,000 AmeriCorps members nationwide work for a array of nonprofit organizations, doing jobs ranging from teaching children and adults how to read to coaching sports teams.

More then 400 AmeriCorps members attending the Pershing Square activities, where they listened to a jazz band and a host of speakers.

“Before I joined AmeriCorps, all I cared about was myself,” said Jeannine Wilson, 18, who goes door to door in her South-Central Los Angeles neighborhood educating families on the benefits of water conservation. “Now I know I can make a difference in a lot of people’s lives and it feels good.”

Randy Wilson, 40, an Army veteran and former homeless drug addict, draws on his experience to help AmeriCorps. “When I’m teaching a vet about the benefits available to him, or trying to get some homeless guy off the streets, I look at them and see myself,” say Wilson.

Also taking it all in were some of the regulars at Pershing Square, most of them homeless. “So that is what they are gonna do?” sarcastically asked skid row veteran Ronald Rayton, 40. “This is nonsense.”

But the enthusiastic AmeriCorps members say making a positive change is what they plan to do. “It’s fun to have people look up to you because you help them,” said AmeriCorps member Sheila Johnson.