AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) volunteers are residing in the upper room of St. Thomas Aquinas during their stay in South Louisiana.AmeriCorps NCCC is a residential national service program for men and women between the ages of 18 and 24.

The team of 12 staying at St. Thomas Aquinas is based out of Sacramento, Calif,. and is here to help Habitat for Humanity and other volunteers build houses in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Presently, 12 houses in various stages are being built.

Members serve in diverse teams of 10 to 12 for 10 months and are assigned to work on projects in their respective regions with non-profit programs, state and local agencies and other community service.

“We are basically all involved in all stages of construction other than the pouring of the slab and the electrical and plumbing work, which is contracted,” Nicolette Slagle, volunteer from Erie, Penn., said.

The team’s 10-month program started in September and will last through July. The team arrived in Thibodaux on Jan. 19 and will be here until March 17.

The volunteers get a living stipend, and their food and housing is covered under the program

Upon successful completion of the 10-month term, members receive an education award of $4,725 to help pay for college, graduate school or to pay back qualified student loans.

According to Brian Bearese, volunteer from Hagerstown, Md., the team is fairly evenly divided between college undergraduates and college graduates.

The team has worked all over Louisiana helping put blue tarps on roofs from Lake Charles to Mississippi with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.

“I just graduated from college and it seemed like the natural step between that and grad school or a career,” Bearese said.

Zac Amos, volunteer from New Matamoras, Ohio, said he joined AmeriCorps to travel, meet new people and help out in the community.

Some of the volunteers have participated in other parts of AmeriCorps and plan to participate in other forms of community service when the 10-month program is finished.

“I really like the aspect of getting out into the community and doing a lot of hands-on work,” Slagle said. “I’d like to get into the Peace Corps eventually, and I saw this as a way to give back to my country.”

The volunteers are enjoying the southern hospitality and food. “We are spoiled,” Sarah Hyde, volunteer from Haddonfield, N.J., said. “We have an entire pantry of food that people have given to us. Everyone that we have met and the students at the center have been so welcoming and gracious, inviting us to different events.”

Bearese said that the Rev. Jim Morrison has been amazing, and they are thankful for his hospitality.

So far during their stay the team has gone on a swamp tour and to the Jean Lafitte museum. “We really become a part of the communities that we live and work in,” Hyde said. “We learn about their different lifestyles and cultures.”

Though being away from home and family for 10-months, the volunteers said they rarely have enough time to get homesick.

“It’s service before self,” Bonnie Hilton, volunteer from Denver, Colo., said.