‘What's more patriotic than Americans helping other Americans?'

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TODAY'S STARTING POINT
Nicole Kach has always wanted to help people. Growing up in Seekonk, Mass., Kach cleared trails with the Girl Scouts and volunteered at the town food pantry. During her junior year at UMass Dartmouth, she led a service trip to Guatemala to help install water filtration systems.
So when the head of her college's office of community service suggested she consider serving with AmeriCorps after graduating last spring, Kach agreed. She applied to be a team leader with the National Civilian Community Corps, part of a network of AmeriCorps programs that fields teams of young adults to work on community service projects across the US for months at a time. 'It's important to give back to others,' Kach wrote in her application, 'and I believe that participating in AmeriCorps is one of the ways I can do that.'
A few months later, Kach was on the other side of the country, leading a team of a dozen NCCC members to fireproof a campsite and retreat center in Julian, Calif. After that, her team headed to the Seattle area, where they worked at a food bank and helped low-income residents file their taxes.
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Then Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency stepped in.
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Kach was helping a woman with her tax return when her boss called. The Trump administration had ordered her team demobilized. Kach and her fellow corps members needed to leave their worksite, pack their things, and return to AmeriCorps' regional hub in Sacramento immediately. Their service was over.
'I just remember dropping to the floor and just sobbing,' Kach said. 'Probably the hardest thing that I've ever done was telling the team that we were going home.'
Besides sadness, Kach's main emotion was confusion. Congress had already appropriated funding for AmeriCorps. Her team was already out in the field. 'We just all thought that we were doing such good work for the communities we were in,' she said. (The White House has called AmeriCorps 'a target-rich environment for President Trump's agenda to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse,' even though an audit of the agency last year made no claims of fraud
Besides Kach's, the administration has demobilized NCCC teams that were building homes in North Carolina, facilitating afterschool programs in Arizona, and
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It's hard for me to be objective about Kach and her work because I also did AmeriCorps. For 10 months between high school and college, I served as a tutor and classroom assistant in a Boston public school with an AmeriCorps program called City Year. The administration's grant terminations have impacted City Year's operations in several cities, a program spokesman told me.
AmeriCorps has long had bipartisan support. The agency began in 1993 under Bill Clinton, but many Republicans
'People I'm talking with are in advanced stages of sorrow,' Goldsmith said.
Their concerns reflect the many ways AmeriCorps' work helps people. Independent studies find that some of the agency's programs generate
National service also exposes those who undertake it to people unlike themselves. Kach's team reflected the country, comprising corps members from Texas, New Jersey, Ohio, Arizona, and Puerto Rico. The City Year team I served on remains the most socioeconomically diverse group I've ever worked with. 'You can think about it as helping understand the lives of others, which is important,' said Goldsmith, who is now a Harvard professor. 'But you can also think about it as a training ground for civic leadership.'
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AmeriCorps isn't for everyone. The work is poorly compensated and can be grueling. Kach received a $500 stipend every two weeks; her corps members got even less. Over five months, four of them dropped out. 'I went into AmeriCorps knowing I was gonna be dirt poor,' Kach said. 'I did it because I believed in the mission.'
Kach is now back at her parents' home in Seekonk applying for jobs. She's confident she'll land on her feet, but less sure about those her service was helping. 'It's a question as to who's going to do this work,' she said.
Still, Kach left even more convinced that AmeriCorps was good for her, is good for America, and is worth preserving.
'It made me realize for sure that the biggest thing I want to do is to continue to help the country,' she said. 'That sounds so cringey to be like, 'I want to keep helping people!' But it's honest-to-God true.'
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POINTS OF INTEREST
Canton, Mass.
Barry Chin/Globe Staff
Boston and Massachusetts
Karen Read retrial:
Testimony has given Canton, the town where John O'Keefe died, a reputation for hard drinking and casual drunk driving. The data
Looking ahead:
This spring has been warmer and wetter than usual. Here's what that
RIP:
Charlene Roberts-Hayden grew up in Medford and became a pioneering Black woman in computer programming. She
Trump administration
Russia-Ukraine war:
Russia launched hundreds of drones against Ukraine. Trump is scheduled to speak with Vladimir Putin today in an effort to end the war. (
Israel-Hamas war:
After US pressure, Israel said it would allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza even as it began a new ground offensive there. (
Trump's agenda:
A House committee advanced Trump's tax bill after conservative Republican holdouts, who blocked it last week for not cutting Medicaid sooner, relented in exchange for promised changes. (
Friendly fire:
Mike Pence, Trump's former vice president, praised Trump for securing the southern border, but called his tariffs a tax hike. (
New pope:
JD Vance, Trump's current vice president, met with Pope Leo XIV in Rome. (
Haitian Flag Day:
On the holiday, Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune
The Nation and the World
Collision:
Officials are investigating what caused a Mexican Navy training vessel to hit the Brooklyn Bridge, killing two sailors. (
Fertility clinic bombing:
The FBI identified the suspect who detonated a car bomb in Palm Springs, Calif., as a man who said he opposed bringing people into the world against their will. (
N.J. strike:
New Jersey Transit's train engineers reached a tentative deal to end a three-day strike that disrupted service to New York City and elsewhere. (
Tornados:
After deadly twisters struck Kentucky and Missouri, locals reported tornado damage in Colorado and Kansas. (
International elections:
Bucharest's liberal, pro-Europe mayor won Romania's presidential election, beating a right-wing nationalist. (
BESIDE THE POINT
By Teresa Hanafin
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Free events this week:
A best margarita contest, outdoor exercise classes, a BPL film screening, free concerts,
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Summer Arts Guide:
Globe critics and contributors have put together a comprehensive list of
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TV this week:
Julianne Moore stars in a dark comedy, Sarah Silverman mourns her parents, Tyler Perry has a new political sitcom,
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Movie review:
The recap of the entire Mission: Impossible series that opens the latest installment is tedious. But when the action starts,
🎭
SNL rumors:
The last episode of SNL's 50th season Saturday had no cast goodbyes, so speculation over who's leaving — including boss Lorne Michaels — is rampant. (
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Appreciating New England:
Quit whining about the rain and look around, photographer Stan Grossfeld says:
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Worker beware:
Even if your boss tells you to unplug outside of work hours, she may not mean it. And could ding you for it. (
🥒
Food watch:
Deli meat, cucumbers, and some cheeses made Consumer Reports' list of the 10 riskiest foods to eat because of the frequency of bacterial contamination. (
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Fat chance:
One-time Red Sox nemesis Ron Darling, the former Mets pitcher who grew up in Millbury, considers himself
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