Utah Conservation Corps Assists FEMA in Education Effort for COVID-19 Vaccination

Utah State University’s Utah Conservation Corps (UCC) is assisting the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to distribute information materials about COVID vaccination to the residents of Clark County, Nevada. The Disaster Services Unit of AmeriCorps has requested that the UCC deploy from July 27 through August 19. One staff member and five AmeriCorps members are assisting in Operation Get Out the Vaccine by canvassing the metropolitan Las Vegas area and leaving informational materials on residents’ doors. FEMA is currently targeting the area with this effort due to recent increases in COVID cases and hospitalizations.

UCC AmeriCorps members will be serving with other AmeriCorps members from Southwest Conservation Corps and Volunteer Iowa. Although the UCC crew will not be completing strenuous natural resource conservation projects over the next four weeks, they will have to contend with scorching summer temperatures. To serve before the heat of the late afternoon, UCC AmeriCorps members will be serving from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday with Mondays off. While out in the field AmeriCorps members will adopt the 30/30 rule of 30 minutes out hanging flyers/canvassing and 30 minutes inside a UCC truck cooling down and drinking water.

“We’re excited to have UCC AmeriCorps members assisting in this important effort to keep the citizens of our nation healthy and our economy running” said Center for Community Engagement Director Sean Damitz.

The UCC, based out of USU’s Center for Community Engagement, was formed in 2001 with a mission to develop the conservation leaders of tomorrow. Since 2001, more than 2,200 UCC AmeriCorps members have served over 1.7 million hours creating or maintaining 4,091 miles of trail and 494 miles of fence, restoring 55,973 acres of public land and reaching 435,606 students with environmental education.

More information on UCC can be found at http://www.usu.edu/ucc.