By Tom Markland, The Journal
MARTINSBURG – When the news of budget cuts to AmeriCorps reached the Potomac Valley Audubon Society’s (PVAS) eight AmeriCorps members, informing them that their positions had been immediately terminated, they had just finished a morning field trip, teaching over 100 local students about the environment in a local park.
In total, AmeriCorps funded 772 service member positions in nonprofits throughout West Virginia, according to its 2024 annual report. Those service members did everything from environmental education to working in food pantries.
Two of the organizations hit by the cuts in the Eastern Panhandle are PVAS, which lost funding for its eight AmeriCorps members, and Community Markets Inc., which lost funding for four.
On Tuesday, PVAS received an email at around noon notifying the organization that it had lost all of its funding from AmeriCorps, and all positions had been immediately terminated. At the time, all of the AmeriCorps members were at Poor House Farm Park on a field trip it hosts for every fourth-grader in the Eastern Panhandle, teaching students about the Tuscarora Creek watershed.
