After a much needed return home to Philadelphia, my new AmeriCorps spike has been going very well. I'm in a small town in West Virginia, (compared to Philadelphia every town in this state is small), as a VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) volunteer with United Way. I've been preparing tax returns for the past 2 weeks and we've helped people get over $120,000 back so far as of writing this! I've heard so many life stories and there is an incredible amount of diversity of people that live in a small community in the mountains.
I've had widows, students, new families, old couples, young couples, investors, car salesmen, landscapers, truck drivers, retirees, veterans, soldiers, felons, unhoused, addicts and even sex workers come through to have their taxes done for free. Many of the clients I get survive on so little and live so well, I'm always baffled when a single dad tells me about his three kids he supports on an AGI of $15,000. In a weird way it's motivating- to know that people have been making it work it makes me less stressed about making things work for myself. This office is a surreal space- where I learn all about the intricate details of a persons life for 10 minutes, they ask about AmeriCorps and I ramble for another 5, and I send them on their way after review never to see them again.
They put us through a thorough (and boring) training for the first week and a half we were here, getting us certified and prepared for complicated situations with clients. We can do pretty much any kind of return, the only real exceptions being capital gains and losses and the majority of businesses and self-employed individuals.
They gave us a test booklet and big book of tax law to follow, called PUB 4012, and it's basically a 400-page textbook outfitted with fancy tabs and one flimsy D-ring to hold it all together. They look like this:
I'm currently living in a Boy Scout camp staff building while the camp isn't being used. It's basically a big room that we all sleep in, save for Mack and Elyse who have their own rooms. Our little sleep area is sectioned off from the rest of the hall by a Lowes tarp hung on some chicken wire.
It's a HUGE camp with a lake, lots of running trails and a very slippery road up to the main highway. Reminds me of Camp Galilee. We've been getting lots of snow, the van has gotten stuck a few times, had to shovel out a ditch or two, slipped on the ice way too many times. People KEEP WHISTLING IN THE DARK AND ITS GONNA GET US KILLED. I clutch my iron pendant to ward off the evil cryptids lurking in the rolling silent hill-esque snowy trails when walking to the dollar general for an Ocean Spray zero-sugar cranberry juice.
My girlfriend's birthday was on Sunday, I got her the matching necklace to an earring set I gifted her last year. So now she's all fancy with a full set! The USPS has failed me yet again, I think they somehow lost her card I mailed her. (She also got flowers and other things throughout the week too). I love and miss you so much. ♡
The kitchen is small but usable, only half the team actually cooks so we get by pretty easily. I've been baking a lot of bread products lately, which I shouldn't be eating, but it's REALLY fun. The team (and the mission!) agrees my biscuits are the best and my bread is really good and I should just switch career paths to open a bakery and be a biscuit baker for the rest of my life and I'm awesome and cool and awesome.
Besides bread I've been making the most of canned goods, corned beef hash is my new favorite. Hearty things like potatoes, beans, corn, carrots, tomatoes, tuna, and just about anything else you can put in a can I've really loved cooking with lately. That combined with an egg or two has been keeping my full and happy. I've made a few big pots of "Lucky Chili" for my team, and it's fed people consistently for up to a week. For the Superbowl I made cheesesteaks for my team, a tradition I'd like to start doing. I've also been trying new coffee recipes that I haven't really touched before.
Chili Dogs with Homemade Chili
One of my program directors put VITA this way: "the best way to bring people out of poverty, is to quite literally hand them money." To see the smile and excitement people get when they get told they're getting ten thousand dollars back from a return because of a new credit limit is something few will experience. The ability to 1:1 educate a community about how taxes work is something I wish was more widely known. I will definitely be volunteering with VITA next year and hopefully many years to come, whether it be with AmeriCorps or not. if you want me to do your tax return for free up until February 26th, here's the link! ☺
https://getyourrefund.org/tvunitedway
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