BUCKFIELD — Chantelle Hay credits AmeriCorps with shaping her entire adult life.

Hay joined the volunteer service program in 2014, intending to complete just one term doing trail maintenance with the Field Team Program from May to November.

However, she stayed for two additional terms, eventually becoming a field team leader and then an environmental steward at Grafton Notch State Park in Grafton Township in Oxford County.

In 2017, she joined the organization’s staff, first as a field coordinator and later as the volunteer and outreach coordinator. She found deep fulfillment in witnessing the growth of new members, mirroring the transformation she had experienced.

AmeriCorps and its work in Maine and around the country are now at risk. The Trump administration recently announced it is canceling nearly $400 million in grants for the program.

Now, more than 120 AmeriCorps positions in Maine, and the services they provide, are in jeopardy, and the state is one of about two dozen that have joined a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the cuts.

As this news broke, Hay, who grew up in Whitefield and now lives in Buckfield, reflected on what AmeriCorps has done for her and others.

Hay was not naturally outdoorsy when she joined the program. During training, she remembers setting up a tent for the first time in her life, in the freezing rain.

“I finally got it set up, climbed inside, collapsed on my sleeping bag and thought, ‘What have I gotten myself into? I have to quit. I have to quit. I can’t do this,’” she said.

But service was in her blood. One set of grandparents served in the Peace Corps. Her other grandfather was in the Army, as was her father, and her stepfather was in the Air Force.

“I considered joining the military but it wasn’t the path for me,” she said.

Hay was 21 and figuring out her life. She was working in a hospital in Damariscotta but she hated it. She wasn’t able to afford college. “AmeriCorps gave me the opportunity to serve,” she said.

Hay went from living in town and working indoors to living and working deep in the Maine woods, doing trail work that so many people have benefited from.

“If you like to get outdoors in Maine and hike, you have walked through, walked on and walked over some sort of structure that an AmeriCorps member has built,” Hay said.

The work challenged her physically and mentally.

“We had to carry rock bars,” Hay said. “They’re these huge pieces of metal that weigh 18 or 20 pounds and are about as long as I am tall. I had to carry two of these rock bars, one in each hand, and all of my stuff in my backpack.”

She remembers hiking up Tumbledown Mountain in Franklin County, near Mount Blue in Weld, and looking up at the sky. “I’m sweating profusely and suffering. I’m thinking, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t,'” she said. “‘At the end of this stint, I’m going to tell them I can’t come back, I can’t do this.’”

“Half of my first season was spent bargaining with the universe: ‘I just need to make it through a couple more days,’” Hay said.

But little by little, things got easier. Her body got stronger. Her mindset did too.

Hay used her AmeriCorps education award to go back to school, an effort she is still piecing together while working full time.

Today she is the education and outreach coordinator for Oxford County Soil and Water Conservation District, a role she can trace directly back to her AmeriCorps experience.

“AmeriCorps gives young people the opportunity to build their resume, get skills and advance in their careers,” Hay said. “That’s certainly what it did for me.”

The AmeriCorps memories that stick with Hay are of being outdoors and seeing parts of Maine that few others ever do.

One moment she often returns to was a day she and her crew were doing boundary work on the Appalachian Trail, searching for overgrown boundary markers.

“We were bushwhacking through dense, thick stuff and found this tiny nook valley,” Hay said. “It was filled with moss, probably 2 feet deep. It was so lush and beautiful. The sun was shining down.

“We stopped to have our lunch in this incredible spot. Probably thousands of people are hiking by it on the AT and never know it’s there.”