Our House e-newsletter Fall 2014 | Page 10

Over two dozen new, current, and former Our House AmeriCorps members filled half the room at the AmeriCorps 20th Anniversary celebration on September 12th at the Clinton Presidential Center. A livestream of the national ceremony was displayed on screens around the room, with speeches by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, who had an important role in the beginning of AmeriCorps in Arkansas and in the United States. In 1993, Governor Clinton began Delta Service Corps in Arkansas to test his idea for a new national service program. After the state program’s success, Clinton combined his idea with VISTA, the domestic division of Peace Corps, to create the new national service program, AmeriCorps. Some of Our House’s new, current, & alumni AmeriCorps VISTA & AmeriCorps members at the 20th Anniversary event: Prentis Jones, Rebekah Hill, Jackson Bittner, Claire Hodgson, Kristyn Willis, Trent Ueunten, Daniel Durbin, Natalyn Bell, and Tracy Jenkins