COLUMBUS, OH - The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) has rescheduled the open house at its new Middletown camp for 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Friday, October 27. A brief ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m.
The newly named Miami Valley CCC Camp is located at 3701 Tytus Ave. in Middletown. The public is invited to attend the event that was postponed in September to allow corpsmembers from the camp to assist with tornado clean up in Xenia.
Representatives from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), which owns the 2,500-square-foot building, and the CCC will be on hand for the festivities. The site, a former ODOT maintenance facility, will serve as a non-residential training center for corpsmembers from the Miami Valley area. It replaces the CCC Camp which was located at 2228 E. Third St., Dayton. The CCC will continue to maintain a recruiting office in Dayton.
"ODOT very generously provided the building to us at no cost," said Sally Prouty, chief of Ohio CCC. "It will prove a valuable, centralized location for training young people to thrive in the world of work."
The new Miami Valley CCC Camp will allow staff to expand recruitment activities and revenue-generating projects in southwestern Ohio. It will also serve as a base of operations as corpsmembers help ODOT implement Governor Bob Taft's Bicentennial Legacy Tree Planting Program. The initiative is aimed at planting an additional 2 million trees, one for each Ohio schoolchild, before the 200th anniversary of Ohio statehood, to be celebrated in 2003. Trees will be planted along Ohio roadways and in urban areas, as well as on state wildlife areas.
The Ohio CCC provides employment and training opportunities for young Ohioans, age 18 to 24. Young adults enrolled in the program receive valuable work experience, educational opportunities and life-skill training - all while completing meaningful conservation and recreation projects to benefit citizens of Ohio. Today's Ohio CCC builds on the proud tradition of the federal Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s and 1940s.
Approximately 160 people are currently enrolled in Ohio CCC. Residential camps are located in Sandusky and Vinton counties. Besides the new Miami Valley CCC Camp, other non-residential camps are located in Columbus, Canton, Zanesville, Cleveland - and near Portsmouth in Scioto County.
Currently, openings for young workers exist in five of the eight camps across the state. For information regarding CCC enrollment, see the ODNR web site at www.dnr.state.oh.us/odnr/ccc or call 1-800-ODNR CCC.
A meeting of the Civilian Conservation Corps Advisory Committee will follow the open house on October 27. The public is invited to attend both events.