Members of the AmeriCorps VISTA team serving with the Arlington Reads program at the Arlington Public Library were recognized for their dedication to community service during the April 8 City Council meeting.

Mayor Robert Cluck proclaimed April 1, 2014 as "National Service Recognition Day" while recognizing and thanking the VISTA team for their work and efforts.

Yoko Matsumoto, the VISTA supervisor for the Arlington Reads program, spoke briefly to the audience, affirming how instrumental the AmeriCorps VISTA program has been in building up the library's literacy programs for children and adults in the community.

According to Matsumoto, these programs have not only helped to lift individuals out of poverty by providing them with better education, but have also fostered multiple partnerships among members of the community, including the Arlington Independent School District, Tarrant County College, The University of Texas at Arlington and the United Way of Tarrant County.

The VISTAs also took a moment to introduce themselves, highlighting their diverse backgrounds and personal reasons for serving. The five-member VISTA team features Paul Chaligne, Lauren Olivares, Melanie Atkins, Eva Luo, and Stephanie Botica. The members came from as close as Arlington, TX and as far away as San Francisco.

They had equally varied reasons for serving, from watching a sibling's life-changing experience in the AmeriCorps program, to feeling called to undergo the humbling experience of moving away and serving, to being tired of wasting time and talent in a job that made them unhappy.

Despite the many personal reasons, one thread was common throughout all of the introductions: the AmeriCorps VISTA team actively chose to serve their country and the Arlington community because they all wanted to make a difference and felt that through serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA, they could.