Wheaton North grad devotes life to volunteering across U.S.

Angie Williams gained some real perspective as the man from Alabama told his story. His brother had been decapitated during a powerful and massive tornado that blasted Tuscaloosa and killed about 50 people in April.

The body’s two halves landed far apart and it took the family a while to find both of them.

But what struck the 23-year-old Winfield resident most about the man’s story was not the gruesome detail, but the way he ended his tale: He said he felt blessed that he still had his health and that his sister still had her home.

“Here I was complaining because it was hot,” said Williams, a 2006 Wheaton North High School graduate. “It opened my eyes to what my priorities should be.”

So much so that this week she returns as a team leader to AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps, a volunteer organization that crosses the country taking on service projects. AmeriCorps is a domestic version of the Peace Corps. A stint usually lasts between 10 months and a year; participants are paid a stipend of about $4,000 with some living expenses covered.

Williams was in a class of 284 people, ages 18 to 24. She completed her first round of service July 29.

Williams said her chat with the Alabama man who lost his brother was one of the most poignant moments in her five service trips.

“(AmeriCorps) is just a really unique opportunity to travel around the U.S.,” said Williams, who received a degree in social work from Illinois State University. “You are not a tourist. Each project, you are there long enough to learn the town.”

Williams’ class of volunteers started at AmeriCorps’ southwest region campus at Colorado Heights University in Denver, one of five regional campuses in the country. They spent one month getting to know each other and then separated into 10- to 12-member teams. The teams were assigned various projects, which typically ran between six and eight weeks.

Williams spent time as a teacher’s assistant in an inner-city Denver school that qualified 100 percent of its students for free or reduced lunches. She helped repair trails in a national wildlife refuge near the Chickasaw Nation capital of Tishomongo, Okla.

And, just before her Tuscaloosa trip, she camped out at Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas, working with a trail crew and science resources management team.

Before her new stint with AmeriCorps begins, Williams will spend a month in leadership training.

Volunteering is old hat to Williams. During her college breaks she volunteered, including three trips helping in hurricane relief. She said AmeriCorps gives her a chance to continue that work.

“I would come back with a great feeling and slowly, but surely, it would wear off,” she said. “I didn’t like how that happened. You just have a greater appreciation for everything.”

That appreciation starts with her parents. Williams was raised in a faith-based home and watched as a young teen while her mother Barb visited nursing homes to help those who could not make it to church to take communion.

Her father, Willie, was a deacon in the Catholic Church who visited homeless shelters regularly.

But once she got older, Angie started striking out and finding her own volunteer opportunities, her mother says.

“It became just natural with her,” Barb said. “She was always one to just go places and help people. Her kindness and love for people, it just radiates. We call her our little missionary.”

“It becomes a lifestyle,” said Angie, who has four older brothers. “You eat, you work, you sleep and you volunteer. It’s something you have to do. Just like you work out to strengthen your heart, you volunteer to strengthen your heart.’