By Lora Oehlberg

Town Crier Editorial Intern

Charlie Paisley had volunteered before, but it paled in comparison to his 10-month service with the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), which began Oct. 5, 2000, and ended Aug. 2. During his yearlong break from college, the Los Altos resident traveled throughout the United States helping restore rural areas and make improvements to communities.

The NCCC is a community-based volunteer program within AmeriCorps, working in five fields: environment, education, public safety, unmet human needs and some disaster relief.

“Through service, you can do a lot of good. I think the act of volunteerism and service is important. It did make a difference,” Paisley said.

After Paisley, a graduate of Los Altos High School, finished his associate’s degree at West Valley College in San Jose, he was looking into programs like the Peace Corps, where he could take a break from school and volunteer.

“I wanted to do something where I could travel, give service, give back, and do something for country and myself,” Paisley said.

He joined the NCCC and went to the Charleston, S.C., base, which covered the southeast region of the United States.

After three weeks of training he was assigned to Team Blue 2, an 11-person unit with members from 10 different states.

The team was assigned projects lasting three to six weeks.

Paisley’s first project took him to Durham, N.C., to build houses for Habitat for Humanity. From there the team went to Chico State Park, La., to build bridges and work on park beautification, trailblazing and tree cutting.

The team then went to Pickens, S.C., for two months, working at Pickens Middle School as teacher aides and helping tutor in after-school programs.

The team then went camping in the Florida Keys, where they cut down trees and used herbicides to remove non-native plants from the islands.

Paisley’s last project took him back to Pickens for two weeks to work and camp along the Palmetto Trail, which when completed will go from one end of the state to the other.

Several AmeriCorps teams have worked on the trail since 1996-97.

“The best part was getting a chance to do service, and having the opportunity to work in these different fields, different states and getting the chance to help people,” Paisley said.

“When you help other people, at the same time you’re helping yourself.”

Now that his stint with AmeriCorps has ended, Paisley will return to finish his bachelor’s degree at either San Francisco State University or Cal Poly. He plans to major in social sciences with an emphasis in business, and would someday like to manage a nonprofit organization.