Atkins: How cutting AmeriCorps will impact our valley
Valley Voices
On April 17, Fox News reported that the Administration gutted AmeriCorps, placing 75% of its full-time employees on administrative leave, curtailing volunteers’ service, and canceling contracts. These cuts are more than distant Washington noise and have immediate impacts on our community.
Many believe “serving your country” means military service. Today, 200,000 people of all ages serve in all U.S. states and territories through AmeriCorps and the organizations it supports. AmeriCorps grants funds to nonprofits, makes other grants through state governments, and administers the National Civilian Community Corps. In Colorado, in the year preceding Feb. 21, 2025, AmeriCorps provided $44 million to Colorado organizations, with 6,636 volunteers serving in 799 locations.
This winter, you may have seen I-70 signs advising drivers of controlled burns. Under the management of the White River National Forest and AmeriCorps, a team of a dozen 18- to 26-year-olds worked out of the Forest Service’s Eagle facility, burning deadwood piles and reducing fuels in Eagle and Summit Counties. They worked five or more days per week in austere conditions in exchange for a below-minimum wage stipend and a $7,395 education award to pay student loans or tuition.
Before this team arrived in Eagle, they created fire breaks and burned off deadwood in California’s Tahoe and Modoc National Forests. Our family hosted them for dinner at our home in February and we were impressed with their enthusiasm, cohesion, and genuine commitment to service. After serving here, they were to complete their yearlong tour in the Pike San Isabel National Forest west of Colorado Springs.
By April 20, this team and some 2,000 AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps members nationwide had been sent home early. Among them is another National Civilian Community Corps team that built homes in Gypsum this winter with Habitat Vail Valley.
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More cuts may be coming. As of April 20, USASpending.gov reported that AmeriCorps had canceled $86 million in grants. AmeriCorps has not announced which grants are impacted or whether the public should expect more cuts. These grant cancellations — perhaps only the beginning — may affect Eagle County’s schools.
The Vail Valley Foundation’s YouthPower365 program provides Eagle County after-school programs and summer camps for youth aged 3-17. For four years, YouthPower365 has received an AmeriCorps grant to enroll “Peak Pathfinders” volunteers from across the country. This year, 10 Peak Pathfinders are serving in our schools, providing one-on-one tutoring and mentorship. My children are students at Eagle Valley Middle School and benefit from the assistance of the Peak Pathfinders AmeriCorps volunteer there. With the Colorado General Assembly already considering changes to school funding that could curtail tutoring, losing AmeriCorps volunteers will mean fewer resources for our students next year.
AmeriCorps also benefits our valley by bringing in talent and giving our young people a way to build their skills. My daughter’s math teacher, Julia Tung, was a Peak Pathfinder before becoming a full-time teacher. Mason Geller, a 2023 graduate of Vail Mountain School, deferred his admission to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to serve for a year in the National Civilian Community Corps. Julia and Mason are two examples of many whose AmeriCorps service contributed to the common good in our valley.
Gutting AmeriCorps upends decades of commitment to service. In his 1989 inaugural address, President George H. W. Bush spoke of America’s community organizations as “a thousand points of light.” In promising to expand service, he said, “the old ideas are new again because they are not old, they are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in.” Later that year, he created the Office of National Service, which would become today’s AmeriCorps. He later signed into law the bill creating the National Civilian Community Corps. Today’s cuts will affect our community’s safety and our schools and will eliminate opportunities to take part and pitch in.
Andrew Atkins is an attorney in Avon and is a 21 year Army veteran and former AmeriCorps senior counsel.
