September 20, 2014
Laura Malm

Recently, Mission Continues Fellow Leon White visited the TacticalGear.com headquarters to tell us a little more about the nonprofit our company proudly supports. A former Marine who lacked direction after returning to civilian life, White explained how the organization gave him a sense of purpose again. Through The Mission Continues, Leon works closely with Mission: St. Louis, a growing local nonprofit that aims to build relationships with at-risk inner-city kids in order to battle poverty and revitalize the community.

September 16, 2014

Nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives in the events of 9/11. And five million men and women have stepped up to defend our nation in uniform since that day. Last week, The Mission Continues deployed in communities across the country for a day of service to mark the 13^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Volunteers built playgrounds for at-risk youth, provided much needed maintenance for a domestic violence shelter, and rehabilitated a community river trail  — all in honor of those lost in the events of 9/11.

September 12, 2014
Regan Turner

On the morning of September 11, 2001, 221 passengers and crew boarded airplanes bound for Los Angeles, unaware that in just a few short hours the world would change forever, and that they would never reach their final destination. At the time, I was a senior in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University, uncertain of the significance of the World Trade Center Towers or even where they stood.

Four years later, by then having gazed solemnly at the gaping hole at Ground Zero in New York City, I was tasked to lead Marines across the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan in pursuit of the terrorists behind the attacks of 9/11. A year after that, I sat and sipped chai tea with villagers in Iraq who tried to convince me that the United States had planned the 9/11 attacks as a motive to invade their country, while I silently prayed that my Marines and I would evade the next roadside bomb and make it home safely to ours. Luckily, we did.

September 10, 2014

AmeriCorps turns 20 years old this week. In celebration of this program, and the more than 900,000 AmeriCorps members who have contributed more than 1.2 billion hours in service across America, our AmeriCorps alumni on staff offer their reflections and advice for new volunteers.

September 6, 2014
Connor Mallon

My name is Connor Mallon. I’m a photographer, an Iraq War veteran, and a Mission Continues Alpha Class Alumnus.  Sometime just before college graduation I realized that I was basically standing in the same place I was in fresh out of the Army four years earlier. I met people on a daily basis who drudged though dead-end jobs with nothing to show for it but a paycheck and a few measly days of vacation every year. I wasn’t positive that I was making the right choice when it came to career fields and I didn’t want to get stuck doing something meaningless and unfulfilling for the rest of my life, so I started thinking about what I DID want to do.