Twenty-three years after serving as a member of the second AmeriCorps NCCC class, Gina Cross was sworn as an honorary Corps member for a day Tuesday before helping this year’s class during a service project at Vicksburg National Military Park.

Cross currently serves as the acting national director for AmeriCorps NCCC and she and Tim Noelker, general council for Corporation for Community Service, assisted a local team of AmeriCorps members paint cannons at VNMP during AmeriCorps Week Tuesday.

“It is nostalgic and exciting,” Cross said. “During this AmeriCorps Week, we have an opportunity as leaders of these programs to come and celebrate the impact we have in communities and also on the future leaders of our country who are being developed through national service.”

The team painted cannons at VNMP and also had the chance to learn a little history of the battle and the weapons they’d be helping to restore from VNMP Chief of Interpretation Scott Babinowich.

“It is pretty cool,” Corps member Emily Ortiz said. “She (Cross) herself was a Corp member so it is neat to work with someone who has come so far from the same position we are. It shows that we are not an isolated group. It actually is connected to Washington and it is more than just a department of the government. They really care about serving the community.”

The team painted four cannons at the park to help restore them and combat age and rust on the chassis. 

“There is so much work that has to happen at the military park and bringing in crews like this helps us tackle some of these projects, especially in an area that is so close to where visitors see things,” Babinowich said. “We are helping the park stay beautiful. We are helping to restore some of these historic cannons and we are helping to improve the visitor experience.”

Cross and Noelker were in Vicksburg to help swear in the newest AmeriCorps NCCC-FEMA Corps Wednesday before their deployment throughout the county, but they decided to take some time and get their hands dirty while seeing first hand the product of their work in Washington.

“This is great,” Noelker said. “As I told the kids, you just cannot learn this on paper. You can’t learn it from a website or a brochure. You’ve got to get out here and meet the kids, hear their stories and see where they’ve been and where they’re going. What I’ve learned a lot, I’ve only been here eight months now, is these kids are starting a lifetime of service in one form another.”

The AmeriCorps NCCC’s Southern Region Campus based in Vicksburg routinely performs service projects at VNMP and they will soon be working in Vicksburg National Cemetery to help uncover more than 700 buried headstones. 

“We are grateful for the support from AmeriCorps for this very important project,” said Superintendent Bill Justice in a release. “Through our partnership with AmeriCorps, we are able to tackle large scale projects such as this. This headstone project not only helps to honor our veterans and beautify the National Cemetery, but it does so in a way that is employing youth, giving them life experiences, and strengthening our connection with our cross-town partners at the AmeriCorps Southene Campus in Vicksburg.”