AmeriCorps volunteers arrived in Vicksburg Wednesday, and their collective plates certainly will be full over the next months.

AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time, team-based residential, national service program for men and women ages 18-24, who are organized into teams of 10 to 12 members. They travel throughout regions of the United States, serving communities on six- to eight-week projects related to disaster preparation, response, recovery and infrastructure improvement. Projects will be conducted in 11 Southern states.

Seventy AmeriCorps volunteers will be housed at the campus of the former All Saints’ Episcopal School on Confederate Avenue. They will be trained for a month, then broken down into groups of 10 to 12. From there, teams will travel to an affected area of the South.

This year has seen tornadoes rip through North Mississippi and decimate cities and towns in Alabama and Georgia. In Vicksburg and along the Mississippi River, cleanup from historic floods is ongoing. Hurricane season is but six weeks old and those who live here know the power and possibility of such storms.

We commend AmeriCorps on its past work in the city, and the future endeavors of this group of volunteers. The sense of helping strangers should be infectious to all of us.

We also wish each member a fantastic year, filled with life lessons and a sense of accomplishment. Your impact on this city has been felt in year’s past and will be felt again. A price tag cannot be put on good deeds.

Welcome to the River City. Here is to a productive and memorable year.