As a VISTA serving the United Way in 2008, Penny Beeman was tasked with capacity building efforts for the Montcalm County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). One of the main goals was to increase volunteer participation in Montcalm County and spread Citizen Corps programs to Ionia County. Since the start of her VISTA position in December of 2008, Penny has helped to merge the Montcalm MRC into the Montcalm-Ionia MRC nearly doubling the number of volunteers participating in meetings, exercises, and community events.

Penny also worked to establish Ionia County CERT which offers 2 or more 20-Hour Basic CERT Classes in the community annually. As a VISTA, Penny got involved in local and regional Citizen Corps and Emergency Management Meetings seeking out as much training and experience as possible. In 2009, Penny worked with 68 unique volunteers for a total 6229 volunteer hours, those numbers increased in 2010 to include 136 volunteers donating 9200 volunteer hours to their community.

After completing 2 VISTA years of service, Penny continues to serve the Citizen Corps programs that she worked so hard to start! As a volunteer, Penny still coordinates the Ionia County CERT team dedicating over 200 hours of service each year. Last year, Citizen Corps Volunteers serving under Penny's guidance donated 3042 Volunteer Hours when combined with the other projects taking placing in 2011, Penny worked with 914 volunteers for a total of 7606 volunteer hours given back to the small rural community. Just last weekend, Penny was one of the 8 Region 6 Citizen Corps Committee members hosting a training conference for 78 Citizen Corps Volunteers who gave up a whole weekend to attend training in Damage Assessment, Volunteer Reception Centers, Team Leader 101, Communications 101, GPS Units, and First Aid. The weekend ended with an exercise in which participants practiced lessons learned throughout the conference. Penny was the Main Trainer for the Volunteer Reception Center Workshop & Exercise in preparation for an upcoming Regional Exercise that will take place in May which will be a Full-Scale Alternate Care Site Exercise that has never been done in the State of Michigan. A Volunteer Reception Center will be set up for 3 days in order to process and manage around 100 volunteers each day! A great deal of volunteer time has been spent putting together the plans for this exercise! Penny has moved beyond taking as much training as possible in her VISTA years, to teaching community members and volunteers how to be better prepared for a disaster!