Americorps Comes To The Rescue! By Kevin Franklin THE RAPPING OF hammers and the smell of fresh-cut wood fill the air. Snow covers the distant mountains and the laughter and music radiate from above. While it may sound like I've stumbled into Santa's workshop, this is the Empire-Cienega Resource Conservation Area, and the laughter is coming not from elves, but Americorps crew members. Americorps is more or less the domestic version of the Peace Corps. As part of a two-year project, the crews are repairing, restoring and rebuilding parts of the Bureau of Land Management-administered ranch in an effort to bring it back to its 1882 glory, says project manager Aubrey Raus. Where time and the elements have damaged the materials beyond restoration, such as the roof, the team is rebuilding it. Even then, every step of the rebuilding phase tries to duplicate the original structure with authentic materials and design. The Empire Ranch Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, collects donations and grant money in order to pay for some materials and Raus' salary. But what really makes the project possible is the muscle and motivation of the volunteers. "It's been fantastic," says Max Witkind, the BLM archaeologist overseeing the work. "If it hadn't been for Americorps, we wouldn't have been able to do this. With funding cutbacks in an attempt to balance the budget, the BLM had little money for historic preservation. When Aubrey came down and asked if he could use Americorps, we jumped at the chance." This crew of eight women and five men ages 18-24 has spent the last eight weeks clearing out 30 years of accumulated junk, preparing a workshop and rebuilding the shingle roof on the main house. Now they'll move on to other projects elsewhere in the country, and a new team will come in for another eight-week stint. "This was learning intensive," says Heather Schichtel, team leader. Like many other Americorps team members, Schichtel signed up to gain a wide variety of experiences, including trail maintenance, grade-school mentoring and playground construction. After their 10-month tour of duty, Americorps team members get $4,725 in tuition or education loan credits. The Empire Ranch project has been particularly challenging, Schichtel says. "We learned about the history of the area, the environment, ecology and the whole restoration process. It's been progressive steps. We started with a team table, then we made the scaffolding then we made the roof grids. We've worked our way up. Now we're doing the shingles. It's been a lot of fun. Aubrey's a great teacher." Raus is as an architect by training. He likes to get his teams to understand the history and value of the sites they work on so they become equally invested in the success of the project. After that, they learn--mostly on the job--all the skills necessary for the project. "By the time the eight weeks are over," Raus says, "they're fully equipped to do the whole thing right--from conceptual, to drawing, to tool use, to site safety, to getting materials and, finally, approaching the job site with the perspective of preservation in mind. These are skills they take with them and can use the rest of their lives. "When a person gets good at something, I take them off that job and make them go do something else so someone else can become good at that job. It's the opposite of what you'd do in a commercial operation. What we're trying to do is train and teach the whole crew. "It turns out 60 or 70 percent of these teams are women," he says. "Most of our crew for the first week couldn't swing a hammer, and they'd never had any experience with power tools. Now they're perfectly comfortable climbing on the roof, banging away, stepping from rafter to rafter. Because many of them have never touched those tools, there's an empowerment thing that happens. When you see that burst forward...that's the driving force behind why I like this work. It's a very wonderful thing to be involved with." Getting There If you'd like to help fund the project, write to Empire Ranch Foundation, P.O. Box 842, Sonoita, AZ 85637; or call (520) 455-5581.

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