Amy Levander, a 1990 Summer Youth Corps alumna, recently added Corps Volunteer to her title as she helped out at the 2014 St. Croix Boom Site Cleanup event led by current SYC participants. Levander was eager to volunteer with the Corps 24 years after her service because she strongly believes the Corps is an important program. “The Corps does great work not only by helping clean up our natural areas, but also by helping young people discover who they want to be,” she said. Levander attributes her experience in the SYC to helping her grow up -- learning a lot about herself and figuring out the kind of person she wanted to be.
During Levander’s two-month SYC term, she met many new friends, played her guitar with other crew members, did the ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ exercise every morning and spiked throughout northern Minnesota. Her crew built a tipi for Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center and worked on trails in Crow Wing, Gooseberry and Jay Cooke state parks. Levander said her SYC experience shaped her life by ingraining a strong sense of care for the environment and a good work ethic.
Today, Levander works for Bailey Nurseries as an inside sales representative where she supports three other reps, from the East Coast, Quebec and North Carolina. In this position she also sells a large range of trees, shrubs, perennials, vines and fruit to customers across the U.S. and parts of Canada.
