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A ping pong table covered in cleaning supplies.That’s the amount of cleaning products two ambitious and eager AmeriCorps members, Erica Brown, 35, and Karen Rewaj, 32, collected on Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 16.

Teaming up with Youth & Shelter Services programs in Boone, the AmeriCorps volunteers, serving Boone County through the Community Partnerships for Protecting Children, collected 30 plastic buckets full of cleaning supplies – from scouring pads to paper towels to dish soap – from generous shoppers visiting the Boone Hy-Vee Food Store. The buckets will be given to families and single women leaving homeless shelters, the Lighthouse and Crawford Hall Family Shelter in Boone, and setting up housekeeping in their new residences.

If it weren't for Jan Beran, 80, and other Ames residents like her, the diversity of faces that surrounded her during a recent after school program might not be.

Both Jan Beran and her husband George are known for their lifetime of giving to the community and especially welcoming people from cultures different than their own.