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Trish Sanders - The Journey and Passion of an AmeriCorps VISTA

4/2/2019

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​In a blink of an eye things change; your path in life changes and possibilities become abundant. My AmeriCorps VISTA experience began with the vice president of my community college telling me she wanted me to be their VISTA, and that I needed to go and apply. I asked her “what the heck is a VISTA?” and she said “never mind that, we will learn together.” I applied and went to my orientation in Chicago and I felt like I was in over my head, everyone in my cohort had their bachelor’s degrees and most working towards their masters. I was just getting back in school after thirty years as a chef because an illness had made me change my career path. 

In five years, I feel that I have had many success stories, but one that stands out to me was in my first year. This story begins with an employability workshop at Kirtland's Center for Performing Arts and live broadcasted to the satellite campuses. The event itself was good, and there was a kid that was sent to Kirtland from Detroit, because his mom didn't want him to get into the same kind of troubles that his friends did, so she sent him packing north. We were giving away random gas cards from names of participants, and his name was drawn. This young person had already graduated and moved back home to Detroit to find work. I called him up and told him who I was and that he had won a gas card, and I needed his address to mail it to him. We got to talking and he told me thank you so much for putting that training together because he went home and used the information to secure a good paying job as a mechanic near his home. His mom was in the background and had asked who was on the phone and he told her, she said to tell me thank you for helping her son to understand how to get and keep a job. It made my heart smile that I could be a part of helping someone get his dream job.

I have met some truly amazing people on my AmeriCorps VISTA journey, and I am truly grateful to have made life-long friends. Giving back is very important to me. To uplift others, helping them to understand their worth, is an amazing thing that grows beyond first-hand contact with a single person. Lightning that sparks can ignite a burning passion so bright that people will understand that they can do anything. I wish that there were no limit on VISTA service years, I would do another five, and more, if it were an option. 

Every little thing you do and the smallest project that you think goes unnoticed impacts peoples’ lives. You might not see the big picture, but continue to plant those seeds because they will grow to a great size and help fulfill our mission, eradicating poverty!  
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I hope that I have made as big an impact on the communities that I have served in as they have made on me. Much love to my MNA cohort, my Leaders and the MNA staff, Maggie Harris, Sarah Pinder, and Donna Murray-Brown. What an amazing support system they are, I would stay with them for many more years if I was able too. 
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Continue the fight and always know you can do anything, just jump!
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Trish Sanders - Beginning a Fifth Year

9/4/2018

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​Hey there, VISTAs! My name is Trish Sanders, and this is my fifth year as an MNA VISTA member and third year serving in the U.P. I love giving back through service! This is my first year with the Mackinac Economic Alliance (MEA) in St. Ignace, and I was able to start this term with an awesome fundraiser, it was amazing to jump right in to my new surroundings and contact so many people. Some to volunteer and others to sponsor, donate and/or participate in our event. Already I have been able to go to a Go Pro workshop with the local Michigan Works! office. Attending these events has given me so many great ideas that I am in the process of writing them all down.  
 
In the meantime, my supervisor and I are putting together a project so that we can utilize a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) grant. This project is to help young people realize that their passion for art can become a lucrative career and that they can love going to work every day. I have created a syllabus outlining the program that I want to implement and now I am creating a step-by-step course outline for each phase of the project. These projects will turn the students’ art into animations, graphic designs, or logos/branding. I have already begun to reach out to many businesses throughout our county to tell them about our idea for STEAM-based apprenticeships/internships and we already have a few interested in the concept!
 
This is way busier than most of your first months will be, so do not fret if you are just getting familiarized with your host site and new surroundings. I am an old pro at this after four years, so I had ideas before this year began. Fellow VISTAs, breathe and relax. You are rock stars for stepping up to the plate to serve others. This year, you will make a giant impact on your community, learn a lot about yourself, and most importantly you will be AWESOME!!!
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Trish Sanders - Teaching Youth Financial Literacy

5/7/2018

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​Hello there fellow VISTAs! Trish Sanders here with an update about the second half of my year here at St. Ignace Chamber of Commerce in beautiful St. Ignace. Wow, it has been busy so far and will only get busier as the summer gets here.

First, I helped set up the Show me the Money Day event. I also partnered with Michigan Works! to put on a successful job fair. During this job fair, people were being hired on the spot for summer  and year-round employment. The next week I was a part of the Money 1-on-1 event at the high school that was amazing and should be done in every high school. During this event, a few of our member businesses went to the high school and taught the young people about loans and credit, investing, insurance, taxes, and balancing your checkbooks and credit accounts. These members took time out of their hectic schedules so that our young people can learn the basics of money management. Thank you, Darcy McLean, from the U. P. State Credit Union, John Kling from Edward Jones Investments and Chamber of Commerce President, Debbie Brandstrom from the U. P. State Credit Union, Greg Cheeseman from Cheeseman Insurance Agency, Merv Wyse retired from First National Bank of St. Ignace and Board Treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce, and Mike Lane from Kiwanis and the Glen Memorial Church. What an impact they made on our community’s youth!

For my everyday work I am out in the community meeting so many more members of my community up here. I have been promoting all of our members through social media and our Facebook page has increased in traffic by 100%. We are getting the community involved in our page and this is creating more traffic for the Visitors Bureau and outgoing mailing for them. Business has grown from the traffic too; the members are loving the attention!

Have fun on your final stretch of your terms, VISTAS; this experience is life changing and you will all be better people for it.
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Trish Sanders - Starting My Fourth Year

9/20/2017

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​Hey everyone!! My name is Trish, I am a fourth year VISTA serving with St. Ignace Chamber of Commerce, and I love giving back. This year begins my second up here in the beautiful Upper Peninsula. I started this term off with knee surgery and now aquatic rehab beginning next week. In the meantime, back at the office, my supervisors and I are putting together a project so that we can utilize a steam grant. This project will help young people realize that their passion for art can become a lucrative career and that they can love going to work every day. We are putting together course type projects for art on the computer which will turn their art into animations, graphic designs, or logo and branding. These are well paying career choices that will let the young artists live their passion to the fullest!

To my fellow VISTA’s, breath and relax, you will love the outcome!
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Trish Sanders - "Winding Down with a BANG!"

7/5/2016

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The end of my second term is drawing near and the college is basically a ghost town (the few classes that are active are online). I have been working on a lasting connection that will connect students with apprenticeships within the local unions. I paid visits to the offices of the local carpenters and plumbers unions to get more information about their requirements and took it to the community colleges Dean of Occupational Education, making a connection that can help put students to work, in their field of study, so that going to school won’t break their wallet. They will be getting paid as they learn on the job skills that coincide with what they are learning in the classroom. This should help a lot of students that don’t have the money to continue school. 

I went to my first Points of Light conference this past week and WOW! Powerful speakers, eager learners, and an abundance of networks. Lonnie Ali was amazing, along with all of the speakers, but who stood out above all of them, for me, was Yara Shahidi. She is the young actress who plays Zoey Johnson on the TV show Black-ish. Mariela Shaker, was another of my favorite speakers. The way she made that violin sing was amazing. Music is the rhythm which our souls move to; it balances us, helps us to feel deeper, and gives us an energy to our lives that makes us feel unstoppable. Well, for me it does. That’s why our MC of the week, Mike Ellison, moved mountains. His words in rhyme brought to life not only the issues at hand but the solutions that can demand a better tomorrow. 

With the networking that I did at the conference, I am going into my third term up in the Upper Peninsula with so many ideas, so much enthusiasm and determination to make another giant difference! 

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Trish Sanders - "Making a Difference Rocks"

2/11/2016

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​Hey there fellow VISTAs, this has been an eventful first half of the year. I started the year getting an alternative weekend group from Central Michigan University to come up north and help with some demolition of the inside of a building for the River House Domestic Violence Shelter’s new resale shop. Hard working and energetic people helped to clear out all of the old garbage to begin the renovations. I have also helped coordinate many domestic and sexual violence awareness events, starting with a balloon launch, on Kirtland Community College’s campus. These events not only raise awareness but also honor survivors. Throughout the semester community members and students/faculty took time out of their schedule to create ceramic bowls and cups for Kirtland’s annual Empty Bowls Project. This project raises money for River House to help support their outreach programs.

In November, I helped the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society on campus to raise money to purchase a food truck to hand out just before Thanksgiving. We fed over 500 families for the holidays.  I am also a board member and volunteer with St. Helen Helping Hands, and during the Christmas season our group has its busiest time of year. The weeks leading to Christmas we unload trucks and organize donations. This year we were able to provide each family with a 20-pound turkey and milk, along with all kinds of non-perishable canned foods. The giving didn’t stop there; the St. Helen Helping Hands also shops for gifts for each person in the families. Our mission is that no child or senior citizen goes without for Christmas here in Richfield Township. The community fundraises all year long and in 2015 raised a little over $19,000, all of which went to the families in need.

For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January, I worked with a history instructor here at Kirtland to put together an informational video, which we played on a loop in the student lounge. Here is a link to the video: https://youtu.be/-UvjdndNfn4. In January, I also worked on fundraising events for River House, including the Hoops for the House basketball tournament and Chili Cook-off. I’ve also been hard at work on the Employability Workshop, which I am coordinating with Michigan Works! and local businesses. This workshop helps students prepare for the job market by providing information on resumes and interviewing, as well as providing information on job fairs ideas and connecting them with community resources. 
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Amidst all these activities and happenings, I have worked on creating a simple flyer for River House that I put up in every female bathroom in all four counties that River House serves. This flyer lists all of the services that River House offers and numbers to call. The ladies can pull a tab with only the phone number on it so if their abuser finds it they won’t know what it’s for. Along with this I am creating a database that will detail the locations of the flyers and a schedule of contacting each one to refill the bathrooms. It has been made a big difference in the communities and many more ladies are able to get help. 
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​Busy is the only way to describe my year so far, but it’s been gratifying. Helping is contagious and energizing. Making a difference rocks! 
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Trish Sanders - "Excited, at the Little College in the Woods"

5/6/2015

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This second quarter of my VISTA experience has been a whirlwind. Chaos and energy all rolled up into excitement. I was able to initiate a new event that will help not only the students at Kirtland Community College, but the entire community around the college. I recruited many of the departments at Kirtland Community College to help out with the event, along with the director of River House domestic violence shelter. Amiee, the director of River House, said anything they could do to help give back to the college who helps them with so much, they would do. Well, I planned and recruited an awesome team to pull off the most amazing “Employability Workshop”. I only had 25 students in the audience but added to that amount were online viewers. We received some wonderful feedback, not only from students and instructors but from local business owners and managers saying that, this project was long needed. This workshop made it apparent to the participants that soft skills will get them the job they seek and give them the tools to keep the job long term. I had two instructors come to me afterwards and tell me that their students that came were so excited that they learned the proper ways to interview, fitting your resume to the type of job you’re seeking and the proper attire you need to land the job you seek. It was an eye opener up here and Michigan Works in Prudenville and Grayling want to become partners with our next event because they said it was great information and well-put together, for the first time ever. So I take that as a plus and am already planning next year’s event. The event it will be interactive with online audiences as well as, the ones in the auditorium. I am putting my interactive media design degree to big use next year. What an amazing feeling it is to have made such a huge difference in a short period of time. 


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Patricia Sanders - "full steam ahead, helping to reprogram a community"

1/27/2015

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Hi there, my name is Patricia Sanders and I am in Roscommon County putting the re-building blocks in place. I have lived in this community for over eight years now and when I decided to become a VISTA in my own area, I saw it as a big potential to help my own community grow and prosper. I am at Kirtland Community College to work with the community and increase education and higher learning.

Working with Kirtland Community College and all of their groups, and River House Domestic Violence Shelter has given me a deeper knowledge of cycles that people live throughand ideas as how to break them and help a person, family and community thrive again. This little college in the woods always amazes me with its generosity and kindness. They pull together to help each other and their district community. At the beginning of my year, I was proud to help Kirtland’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter (Alpha Omicron Gamma) raise money to purchase a semi-truck full of food to hand out just before Thanksgiving. It doesn’t sound like much to most big cities but this fed over 500 families.

I have been working on a project that will get fresh produce vouchers from our district’s local grocery stores into the Kirtland Community College’s food pantry, helping students to better nourish their bodies to further nourish their minds. This will help with learning retention, student getting better grades, graduation rates and getting a good job in the field they want. I believe this project is in the final stages so it can soon be implemented. I have recently joined Kirtland Community College’s community garden team to help provide food for not only the students but the surrounding communities as well, and maybe create a service-learning class from it. This projecthas just begun this past week but we have big ideas and many connections to make the vision a reality.

After moving up to Northern Michigan eight years ago, I was baffled as to why schools were in session on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Schools are not closed for this day up here so I asked a few questions. Most responses were that MLK was about race and his speeches didn’t pertain to them. Well, I had to reach at least one person with the facts that Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn’t only about helping the black community but all people living in poverty and despair, so I had a History Instructor create a video to play throughout Kirtland on MLK Jr day in hopes to reach just one student. The look on most of the students’ faces when watching the video was priceless. They realized that MLK was about all humanity living in poverty and he educated people about living a better life. The video was a huge success. http://youtu.be/-UvjdndNfn4

The partnership with River House Domestic Violence Shelter has helped me to be able to raise more awareness about the epidemic of domestic and sexual violence. I have helped fundraise and have put on a few events for them. The first was to bring awareness to Kirtland Community College’s campus, faculty, staff and student body. The event was held on the campus and I had many speakers. The balloon launch symbolizes the survivors and the strength it has taken them to go forward after such an ordeal. 1 in 7 men and 1 in 4 women will be assaulted or abused by someone they intimately know. River House is there not just to help the victims move forward and not repeat the cycle, but to enlighten the community and the world about this problem, so one day there would be no need for shelters. The second project I put on was the Empty Bowls Project. We held it at Kirtland Community College to help raise money for River House Domestic Violence Shelter so they can continue to help all of the district counties. http://youtu.be/2N3HLYHZ40o. We also have another project coming up for River House which is a take back the night march. This march brings awareness that all violence needs to be STOMPED OUT!! 


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