John Bolan is a Power of We AmeriCorps serving in the areas of education, environmental stewardship and healthy futures for the NorthWest Initiative Food Systems Project in Lansing, MI.

John Bolan was a Food Systems Project volunteer and community food advocate long before he was an AmeriCorps Volunteer Coordinator serving the northwest Lansing community. One of the first times working with him at the Riddle School Garden as a volunteer in 2009, I was able to witness the patience he had with a child who admitted to stealing produce from John’s nearby community garden plot. John took this moment to spend a few hours of his afternoon to educate our “little thief” in the most understanding and enlightening way possible.

Within just a few weeks of knowing John, it became obvious that his brain is as vast as an encyclopedia and there wasn’t a single gardening or horticulture term that he couldn’t define. His personality is by far his greatest asset, along with his playfulness and brightens even the darkest of situations. He is also gifted in his ability to relate to people from any and all walks of life. These are just a few of the reasons I sought out funding sources to hire John as the part-time Food Systems Project Volunteer Coordinator.

John is half way through his second year of service. He served1285 hours in his first year, far beyond the 900 hours required (385 hours over to be exact). He had also doubled the number of volunteers and hours serving our program by community members, with 251 volunteers recruited and 4,489.95 hours of volunteer service reported in 2011. The volunteers he recruited, trained and monitored served thousands of individuals; including 1,200 students in four elementary schools receiving nutrition education via school gardens, 60 families affected by fresh produce from their free community garden plots, hundreds of healthy food samples and recipe cards handed out at events each year, hundred more who rely on our Thursday emergency food distributions, and thousands of community members attending the Westside Farmers’ Market and the Westside Summer Fest.

Lastly, John’s service goes above and beyond his work at NorthWest Initiative. He also had the privilege of serving as the programs representative on LeaderCorps; where he served on the Diversity and Inclusion Committee to address issues of inclusions within the community. One of his projects was to create accessible garden space in Lansing and this has grown into a completely accessible garden house with handicap accessible raised beds that allow wheel chair and mobility limited individuals to have space to grow there own food. The garden house is now completely paved with bricks to allow free access to all parts of the building; previously it was layered with wood chips that made movement cumbersome. This project created much community excitement and a grant was written for and awarded to duplicate the space. Now six other sites are being turned into accessible spaces similar to the one at the garden house. John is proud to have been a part of all of this.

John also volunteers at Hunter Park nearly every Sunday for the last three years. It allows him to volunteer for a community outside of his AmeriCorps service area. He participates in a variety of activities there from World Day to being a shift Leader for the green house.

Currently, John is also a volunteer with the Greater Lansing Food Bank’s Garden Project. He serves as the garden coordinator for the Letts Community Garden and has been involved in many activities with the garden project for almost a decade. It is another way John is able to serve his community and encourage people to grow their own food to promote a healthy lifestyle.

John deserves to be nominated as National Service Superstar for 2012 Service Impact Awards. Be it for his patience, playfulness, empathy, garden skills, people skills, ethics, or the mark he has left on his community; John Bolan is a service superstar.