2017-18 Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) arrive in Chinook

Lacy Schimmel, from Wisconsin, and Lauren LaMonica, a native of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, were introduced at a community gathering last week in Wallner Hall. The two will serve as Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) for a year in Chinook working with existing faith-based and community organizations. This is the sixth year that five local congregations have hosted the adult volunteers. There are fifteen sites in the U.S. and seven sites in foreign countries where volunteers serve each year under auspices of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). Volunteers have been placed for 20 years through the program.

The YAVs will work at a variety of tasks and with different organizations during the year. They touch the lives of youth to senior citizens in many different settings. Locals can expect to see them helping at the Funshine Preschool, tutoring and helping staff and students at Meadowlark Elementary, tutoring students Chinook High, visiting seniors at both the Sweet Nursing Home and the Grande Villa apartments for seniors. On certain days they will help prepare and serve meals at the Chinook Senior Center. The Food Pantry relies on them to help unload trucks, organize foodstuffs and distribute the food. Two more afterschool programs, Sunshine Church School and LEAP for kids 4-12, will also benefit from the volunteers' time and efforts.

A little about the new YAVs,

Lauren and Lacy

The typical applicant for the Young Adult Volunteer program is a recent college graduate. That has been true for most of the YAVs in Chinook to date. This year the two volunteers are a bit older than the average YAV. Both Lauren and Lacy commented at the gathering in Wallner Hall where they were introduced, "We were surprised that we were a couple of the oldest people accepted into the program." Both have been out of college for a few years and in the work force.

YAVs also tend to be people seeking discernment, trying to find what they want to spend their lives doing. Of the YAVs who've served in Chinook over the years, more than half began seminary studies for a religious vocation after their year as a YAV. Lauren LaMonica wrote in her bio for the YAV website that she was unsure what she wanted to do with her life, but "I want to be involved in community...and expand my faith... I'm super excited for this opportunity to be able to do all of that and cannot wait to share my experience with y'all!"

Why did they choose Chinook, the most rural site in the YAV program? Lauren, from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, said, "Even though I live in a metropolitan area, I do like small towns." Her first choice was to be placed at an international site. She added, "Chinook was my first choice after the international site. Also, I wanted to see snow so Montana attracted me for that reason as well." Lacy, who grew up in a small town near Green Bay, Wisconsin, said "Chinook was in my top two choices. I like small towns, though my hometown is not as small as Chinook."

Both new YAVs worked after they graduated from college. Lauren graduated from a community college and worked in a nursery run by the Presbyterian church she attended in Texas. Lacy earned a degree in exercise science and psychology and worked, after college, in a facility for adults with special needs. Lacey also helped with a child that was autistic.

Neither had ever visited Montana. They flew in to Great Falls so from the airport to Chinook was about all of the state they've seen so far. The "Journal" wishes them a great year, many rewarding experiences and a chance to explore and enjoy "the last best place."