The Class XVII Summer of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps Southern Region was inducted Tuesday, and was to fan out today across the South to begin a nine months of volunteerism.

Region Director Gary Turner welcomed the 158 members and team leaders of the second Vicksburg class as they paraded into the gym of the former All Saints’ Episcopal School on Confederate Avenue, also their residential campus, to the tune of “Lean On Me.”

“The efforts over the next nine months will undoubtedly leverage the energy and the countless volunteers, and in the end, we will look back and know that they have made a difference,” Turner said in his welcome speech at the induction ceremony that also featured a welcoming address by Mayor Paul Winfield, remarks by Rep. Steve Holland of Tupelo and keynote speaker Sanford Johnson, deputy director for Mississippi First and an AmeriCorps alumnus.

“Each and every day, I knew that an entire community was counting on me and the rest of our program,” Johnson said as he was telling the inductees to create a lifelong commitment to service by using three steps.

“First, you must make an immediate impact on your community. Second, you must use the lessons from the bad experiences to create a deep, positive impact. Lastly, you must use the relationships that you build to create a wider impact to serve as many people as you can.”

Members of the full-time, team-based residential program for men and women ages 18 to 24 will each perform 1,700 hours of community service and 80 hours of independent service responding to disasters, building homes, revitalizing parks and national environments, working in or overseeing homeless shelters, organizing donations of food, clothing or other materials and meeting the volunteer needs of the community.

“It is not a small thing to devote an entire year of service, and certainly not a small thing to devote a few months of service in this society in these difficult times,” Turner said. “But these young adults have stepped up directly and, sometimes, indirectly.”

In Vicksburg, last year’s Corps class helped restore parts of the Southern Cultural Heritage Center and helped establish an informational website for disabled Mississippians, as well as responded to disaster-stricken Yazoo City following a major tornado in April.

Since arriving in Vicksburg last month, AmeriCorps members have been training in volunteer management and leadership, CPR, first aid and work skills. Team leaders, who arrived in early July, have trained in wildland firefighting.

Nearly two weeks ago, members volunteered at the Y’s Warner-Tully Camp in Claiborne County to replace a shingle roof and cut out a mountain biking trail.

Each member will receive about $200 every two weeks, and at the end of the program, each will receive a $5,350 Segal AmeriCorps Education Award to be used for education or toward student loans.

Before Tuesday’s induction ceremony, AmeriCorps members displayed artful presentations of their assigned first-round projects, which kicked off today and will run for six weeks.

Auburn University graduate and newly inducted member Andrew Bonner and his team of 10 are headed to Chalmette, a town in St. Bernard Parish, La., to offer affordable, post-storm housing options.

“St. Bernard Parish was the first parish in Louisiana to be declared uninhabitable,” after Hurricane Katrina, said Bonner, 22. Bonner said he and his team, led by returning member Alleigh Wickert, will remodel residents’ homes.

“We hope to be doing at least three houses a week,” said Bonner, whose goal in the program is to get “a different perspective on the world.”

A fellow first-year AmeriCorps member Larkin Saylor, 19, and her team of 11, led by Lane Forsman, are headed to New Orleans to restore historic homes.

“My goal is that our team can work together and get things done,” said Saylor, a Newberry, S.C., native. “I want to challenge myself. I signed up because I love to help people.”

Saylor is a general business student at Piedmont Technical College in her hometown. She hopes to return and graduate after her service with AmeriCorps.

Vicksburg is one of five regional campuses in the nation. The others are in Sacramento, Calif.; Denver; Vinton, Iowa; and Perry, Md.