MIFA History II continued The VISTA Impact In July 1974 the federal government awarded MIFA the contract for VISTAs, or Volunteers in Service to America. Often referred to as the domestic peace corps, VISTAs were usually college students paid with a small stipend to go into poverty areas to help fellow Americans improve their lives. MIFA changed this pattern by recruiting volunteers who were already living in the community and were mostly well-educated, mature women with volunteer experience and a proven orientation toward action. Julia Allen was named the first VISTA recruiter. Holocaust survivor Nina Katz, a member of the first class, recalls that Allen challenged them, “We need all your skills and resources.” Community activist Ina Fitzgerald, also a member of the first group, remembers, “We were promised low pay and long hours.” In spite of the small stipend, people volunteered to work on projects they felt would make a real difference in the lives of their fellow citizens. Smith believes the program worked well because of the caliber of the VISTA volunteers who, he points out, were presented with a challenge and allowed to “run with it” with minimal supervision. Dempsey still sees VISTAs as “the key to MIFA's success…people who are intelligent, creative, mature, AND with initiative. They are people who wanted to do things.” Many remain actively involved with MIFA as employees or volunteers long after their federally-limited-to-five-years VISTA time expired. Described by Smith as the stabilizing link during MIFA's various transition periods, Sybil Tucker was a member of the first VISTA class in 1974. As a VISTA, she helped to develop the East Senior Center and many other programs. She went on to supervise the VISTA program, has worked for MIFA ever since and today is MIFA Senior Program Executive in which capacity she supervises all programs except housing. As a member of the VISTA class of 1976, Virginia Dunaway developed and became the first director of the MIFA Food Bank. Once the success of this program was assured, she was named MIFA Associate Executive Director. Now retired, Dunaway was the first Executive Director of the Women's Foundation. Also an alumna of VISTA's Class of 1976, Virginia Klettner began her VISTA years working on tax rebates for the elderly but soon was found working in the newly established meals program. As a MIFA employee she helped set up the honorariums and memorials program; in the late eighties she was named Director of Volunteers. With today's pressing need for more volunteers she is assisting Charlie Nelson, who is full-time Program Executive for Volunteers. She insists that “there would be no MIFA without volunteers.” estimating that there are, at any given time, between “2500 and 3000 of Memphis' most caring people volunteering under the MIFA banner for those less fortunate.” Two of their '76 classmates, long retired, continue their commitment to MIFA as the (volunteer) authors of this history. Early VISTAs also helped develop the Mid-South Senior newspaper and the Emergency Homes for Families. The VISTA program as it was operated by MIFA was copied across the country. Corporation for National Service, formerly Action, the federal agency in charge of the program, rewarded its effectiveness by increasing the number of volunteers to as many as thirty-five and by continuing to place the VISTA contract with MIFA for an unprecedented thirteen consecutive years. MIFA continued having VISTA volunteers in the ensuing years. In 1996 it was again awarded for VISTAs; today, there are six VISTAs designated to MIFA. Next: The Search for a Sound Financial Base