AmeriCorps VISTA

Heather Keyt, AmeriCorps VISTA Member - 2009-2010

On September 8, 2009, Heather Keyt joined the Gateway Red Cross as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in Disaster Volunteer Services.  This new position exists in partnership with other chapter staff. She has 4 years of teaching experience, plus 900 hours as an AmeriCorps member and Program Coordinator for Big Brothers Big Sisters.  As a teacher, she also worked to develop and monitor Zoology Teams for classroom animal care.

While with the Gateway Area Chapter, Heather will be concentrating on volunteer recruitment.  She is responsible for increasing the number of volunteers for the Disaster Action Team and the newly-created Disaster Management Team.  She will also be educating people from the community about disaster preparedness through Be Red Cross Ready, Masters of Disaster, Pandemic Flu, and other programs.  Finally, she will work in partnership with Disaster Action Team members to develop team specializations into certain needed areas, including developing additional Disaster trainers.  To do all of this, she will also be working on building community partnerships and organizing the Gateway Area Chapter’s debut Disaster Tour.

“VISTA” stands for “Volunteers In Service To America”.  The AmeriCorps VISTA program is one of several AmeriCorps programs that enable people to spend more time serving our country directly. VISTA members concentrate on building the service capacity of their community and their host organization.  This may include volunteer recruitment, fundraising, and/or building relationships within the community.  For more information, please visit http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/vista.asp.