The document summarizes the new FEMA Corps program which deploys young volunteers around the country to assist with disaster response and recovery efforts. An 8-person FEMA Corps team has been working in the Winchester area at the FEMA Finance Center to prepare for hurricane season, and has also volunteered in the local community at the Jubilee Soup Kitchen and Salute to Our Troops parade. The goal of the program is to bolster FEMA's capacity for disaster response while providing national service opportunities for youth.

1. See us on the Web: www.winchesterstar.com
WEEKEND EDITION
75¢
Saturday, August 3, 2013
118th YEAR No. 26 WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA 22601
TheWinchester Star
s h e h a s
worked for
Staunton’s
Parks and
Recreation
D e p a r t-
ment for 23
years. “This
was the job
I g o t t h e
d a y I f i n-
ished my course work in grad
school.”
She started as a community
recreation programmer.
Jones has a bachelor’s de-
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ON WINCHESTERSTAR.COM
Going to check out local yard sales
this weekend? This feature
may help you to plan your route
for bargain-seeking.
Divided Congress
takes 5-week break
❞We should not be judged on how many
new laws we create. We ought to be judged on
how many laws that we repeal.
— Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio
SEC probing
firm with ties
to McAuliffe
By TOM HAMBURGER
and BEN PERSHING
© 2013 The Washington Post
An electric-car company co-
founded by Virginia gubernato-
rial candidate Terry McAuliffe,
D, is under investigation by the
Securities and Exchange Com-
mission over its conduct in so-
liciting foreign investors, ac-
cording to law-enforcement
documents and company offi-
cials.
The SEC subpoenaed docu-
ments in May from GreenTech
Automotive and bank records
from a sister company, Gulf
Coast Funds Management of
McLean, Va. The investigation
is focused, at least in part, on al-
leged claims that the company
“guarantees returns” to the in-
vestors, according to govern-
ment documents.
GreenTech has sought over-
seas investors through a feder-
al program that allows foreign-
ers to gain
special visas
if they con-
t r i b u t e a t
l e a s t
$500,000 to
create U.S.
jobs. Gulf Coast, which is run
by Anthony Rodham, the broth-
er of former secretary of state
Hillary Rodham Clinton, seeks
investors for GreenTech and ar-
ranges the visas.
In recent months, the SEC
TAX-FREE WEEKEND
JEFF TAYLOR/The Winchester Star
Hailey Brewer, 10, of Frederick County shops on Friday for back-to-school clothes at the J.C. Penney store in
Winchester’s Apple Blossom Mall. She will be a fifth-grader at Stonewall Elementary School this fall.
Gubernatorial
candidates at
farm forum | A3
Back-to-school
shoppers hunt for deals
By REBECCA LAYNE
The Winchester Star
WINCHESTER — Ten-year-old Hai-
ley Brewer began her back-to-
school shopping on Friday with a
peek at some brightly colored
scarves.
Soon it was on to a rack of like-
colored shirts.
“It’s really fun when you get new
shoes and get to see things you
love,” she said. “But I only pick
things that I love the most. I can’t
get everything.”
Hailey’s expected weeklong
shopping affair, which began at the
J.C. Penney store in the Apple Blos-
som Mall, may eventually cost her
mother Smokey Huff $300 to $400,
including about $50 worth of re-
quired school supplies.
Lord Fairfax Community College student Louis Ramirez of Winchester
spent some time on Friday afternoon shopping for school clothes at the
J.C. Penney store.
New city parks
director hired;
starts Sept. 3
By SALLY VOTH
The Winchester Star
WINCHESTER — Jennifer
Jones has been selected from
nearly 200 applicants to be the
city’s new parks and recreation
director.
Now the superintendent of
recreation in Staunton, she will
begin her new job on Sept. 3, ac-
cording to a city government
news release.
She will succeed Brad
Veach, who resigned on May
15.
Jones, 48, said on Friday that
Jennifer Jones
★Saturday in The Star
FEMA Corps helps prepare region for aid, crises
By MATT ARMSTRONG
The Winchester Star
WINCHESTER — When Midwest
natives Sarah Hellier and Kate En-
loe joined a new federal govern-
ment program in February, they
probably did not know that their
jobs would take them to parts of
New Jersey ravaged by Hurricane
Sandy before bringing them to the
northern Shenandoah Valley.
FEMA Corps of 1,600 was de-
signed to boost the government’s
ability to respond to national disas-
ters while expanding economic op-
portunities for young people and
saving money for taxpayers. The
first class of members graduated
from the training program in
September 2012.
“It’s a way to send help around
the country and also get young
people involved in emergency
management,” said Hellier, the 23-
year-old spokeswoman for the
eight-person team now working in
the Winchester area.
Members, who range in age
from 18 to 24, are given a living al-
lowance of about $4,000 for 10
months of service in addition to
housing, meals and limited medi-
cal benefits.
A joint venture
FEMA Corps is a joint venture
of the Department of Homeland
Security’s Federal Emergency
Management Agency and the
AmeriCorps National Civilian
Community Corps, often called
“the domestic Peace Corps.”
Sarah HellierSee Corps, Page A6
See Shop, Page A6 See Director, Page A2
See McAuliffe, Page A8
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/The Associated Press
After final votes were cast on Friday, members of Congress walk
down the steps of the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill as
they leave for a five-week recess. With few accomplishments in the
divided 113th Congress, the next big battle is over the budget, the
nation’s debt limit and the possibility of at least a partial
government shutdown.
By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON — The accomplish-
ments are few, the chaos plentiful in
the 113th Congress, a discourteous
model of divided government now
beginning a five-week break.
“Have senators sit down and
shut up, OK?” Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid blurted out on
Thursday as lawmakers milled
about noisily at a time Sen. Susan
Collins was trying to speak.
There was political calculation
even in that. Democrats knew the
Maine Republican was about rip in-
to her own party’s leadership, and
wanted to make sure her indictment
could be heard.
Across the Capitol, unsteady
bookends tell the stor y of the
House’s first seven months in this
two-year term. Internal dissent
among Republicans nearly toppled
Speaker John Boehner when law-
makers first convened in January.
And leadership’s grip is no surer
See Congress, Page A7

2. THE WINCHESTER STARA6 SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 2013
Bethany Coury talks to workers at the Jubilee Soup
Kitchen at First Presbyterian Church in Winchester.
Sarah Hellier (right) and Esmeralda Vidana work at
a field office in Lincroft, N.J.
Photo provided by Sarah Hellier
FEMA Corps team members pose for a portrait at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington. The
inscription mentions the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program similar to the present-day FEMA
Corps.
Tyler Griffin performs volunteer work in the Jubilee
Soup Kitchen at First Presbyterian Church.
SATURDAY IN THE STAR & LOCAL NEWS
Corps
from Page A1
FEMA was formed in 1978 with
the primary purpose of coordinat-
ing response and relief efforts for
large-scale natural disasters.
AmeriCorps began in 1993 with
a goal to help localities around the
country through community ser-
vice projects and by working with
nonprofit agencies.
Enloe, the 24-year-old team
leader, said the program has al-
lowed her to see what happens be-
hind the scenes of emergency
management operations.
“It’s a really good look at what
and how things go throughout the
process,” she said this week.
While some similarities exist
between FEMA Corps and Ameri-
Corps — such as members being
sent to different parts of the coun-
try for a 10-month period — the pri-
mary difference between the orga-
nizations is the types of situations
the agencies respond to.
“FEMA Corps responds only to
disaster-related situations,” Hellier
said. “We work only with FEMA.
AmeriCorps can respond to a wide
variety of things and do a wide va-
riety of things.”
During their deployment to
Winchester, Hellier and her team-
mates have helped staff members
at the FEMA Financial Center in
Frederick County to clear up any
administrative clutter and prepare
for potential aid requests during
the hurricane season, Hellier said.
If a hurricane struck the region
while the team was still in Winch-
ester, it would conduct fieldwork,
according to Enloe.
“If there were to be a hurricane,
since that season’s coming up . . . ,
we’d be going door-to-door assess-
ing needs of individuals,” she said.
“Since that hasn’t happened yet,
we’re kind of just waiting. Part of us
being here is location, because it is
close to the South, but right now
we’re just doing administrative
tasks for the finance center, work-
ing on different projects in there.”
Community involvement
The team’s work in the commu-
nities extends beyond administra-
tive work for FEMA.
Due to its nature as a partner-
ship between two agencies, FEMA
Corps members must follow stan-
dards for both parent organiza-
tions.
A primary value of AmeriCorps
is that teams become involved in
the community.
Since arriving in Winchester on
June 27, the team has performed
volunteer assistance in the Jubilee
Soup Kitchen at First Presbyterian
Church and at Winchester’s Salute
to Our Troops parade on July 20.
The corps will also perform vol-
unteer work at a Habitat for Hu-
manity house on Thursday and the
city’s Friday Night Live event on
the following day.
The team’s last day of work at
the FEMA Finance Center is Aug.
16, but it will do volunteer work at
the soup kitchen on the day after.
“Volunteering at the Jubilee
Soup Kitchen was really a great ex-
perience,” Hellier said. “They run a
really great kitchen there for poor
people [and] homeless people, and
it was really nice to volunteer there
. . . .”
Frederick County resident
Daisy Fujishiro, who manages the
soup kitchen with her husband
Ken Fujishiro, said the FEMA
Corps team helped to prepare the
food, served those who came and
cleaned up after the kitchen closed
for the day.
“They were very good to have,
they were very good workers
[and] I certainly am looking for-
ward to having them back,” she
said by phone this week.
The work has a downside, Hel-
lier said, since corps members can
become attached to a community
and be reluctant to leave after their
brief assignments end.
“We’re here to volunteer our
time because it’s what we like to do
and volunteering, spending time
with the community and with the
people, you get a little emotionally
involved and it gets a little difficult
to leave sometimes,” she said.
The team also experienced dif-
ficult assignments in Lincroft, N.J.,
when it helped with relief efforts af-
ter Hurricane Sandy.
“[Aid] applicants would come in
that were still very devastated by
the disaster — like, their home was
still destroyed, they were still living
out of a hotel — and this was six
months after the disaster hit,” Hel-
lier said. “This one particular cou-
ple came in and said that they were
getting kicked out of their hotel
and they basically were so devas-
tated that they had nowhere to live
and were going to be homeless in
the next week.”
“A great program”
After graduating from the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin-River Falls
with degrees in journalism and po-
litical science, she was not sure
what she wanted to do to start her
career, Hellier said.
“I was happy with my college
experience, but I hadn’t really felt
like I had made a difference yet,”
said the native of Eden Prairie,
Minn. “[I] saw this new program,
FEMA Corps, and found that that
was pretty much up my alley with
the two degrees I had.”
Enloe, a native of Platteville,
Wis., said she was in the same po-
sition after graduating from the
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
with degrees in communications
technology and business adminis-
tration in December 2011.
“I found this program and
thought, ‘What better way to have
an opportunity to work within the
government and do service as well
and get to travel?’ ” she said.
Enloe added that she is torn
over whether to sign up for another
tour as a team leader. “I really love
this program; I think it has a lot of
room to grow into a really great
thing. Also, though, it’s hard be-
cause . . . if there’s a hurricane you
can’t leave, and I have some obliga-
tions in the upcoming year that I
just can’t miss out on, personally, at
home.”
Hellier said she is considering
signing up for a tour as a team lead-
er after her current stint ends.
“FEMA Corps is a great pro-
gram for anyone who likes to travel
and meet new people and become
active in the communities that
they’re in,” she said.
Additional information about
FEMA Corps, including how to join
and the requirements for joining, is
available at www.nationalservice.gov/
programs/americorps/fema-corps.
— Contact Matt Armstrong at
marmstrong@winchesterstar.com
GINGER PERRY/The Winchester Star
The FEMA Corps Alpine 4 members are Esmeralda
Vidana (seated on the wall from left), Tyler Griffin
and Emily Henry; seated on the steps (from left) are
Kate Enloe, team leader, Bethany Coury, Sara
Pearson, Sarah Hellier and Connor Smoot.
❞It’s a way to send help around the
country and also get young people
involved in emergency management.
— Sarah Hellier, FEMA Corps member
GINGER PERRY/The Winchester Star
Kate Enloe is the FEMA Corps
Alpine 4 team leader.
Shop
from Page A1
“It’s a big ordeal now,” Huff
said. “You have to get the new
styles and trends.”
Friday was the first day of a tax-
free holiday in Virginia, and stores
were filled with parents and chil-
dren trying to find back-to-school
sales and supplies.
A survey released by Offers.com, a
coupon and deals site, showed that
67 percent of U.S. parents with
school-aged children plan to spend
more than $100 per child on back-
to-school shopping this year.
Of the 2,020 adults surveyed, 85
percent are looking for deals on
clothing and 80 percent for bar-
gains on shoes, while 68 percent
are after school supplies.
Experts say this year’s back-to-
school shopping season is expect-
ed to be weaker, as consumers pre-
pare to spend less because of high-
er gas prices and payroll taxes.
The average family with school-
age children is expected to spend
$635 — down from last year’s $689,
according to the National Retail
Federation.
The figure will far exceed what
20-year-old Winchester resident
Jared Brant plans to spend — noth-
ing.
“I’m using all my money to pay
bills or actual tuition,” said the
Lord Fairfax Community College
student. “I kind of use the same
stuff over and over again.”
His friend Louis Ramirez, 22, of
Winchester has other plans. He’s
preparing to spend $50 to $75,
mostly on shorts, V-neck shirts
and T-shirts.
“The sales are pretty good,” he
said.
On Friday, Bunker Hill, W.Va.,
resident Samantha Robinson
helped her stepson Damien, 5, try
on shirts at J.C. Penney.
The only requirement, accord-
ing to Damien: “Pockets, pockets,
pockets. Because I put stuff in
them.”
Samantha plans to spend about
$100 on back-to-school shopping.
At the Rutherford Crossing Tar-
get store, Steffanie Simpson of
Kearneysville, W.Va., helped her
son Matthew to try on shoes.
The first-grader puts a lot of
wear on his sneakers, so he ended
up with two pairs. It was part of the
$100 Simpson plans to spend.
Although she was in a good
JEFF TAYLOR/The Winchester Star
Samatha Robinson of Bunker Hill, W.Va., helps her 5-year-old stepson Damien try on new shirts while
shopping for school clothes on Friday at the J.C. Penney store in the Apple Blosssom Mall.
mood on Friday afternoon, Simp-
son wasn’t totally pleased with her
back-to-school shopping experi-
ence: she had already visited Cost-
co and Walmart earlier in the day
for various supplies.
“I don’t think it’s gone real good
cause I’ve had to go to three differ-
ent places,” she said.
— Contact Rebecca Layne at
rlayne@winchesterstar.com
The average family
with school-age
children is expected
to spend $635 —
down from last year’s
$689, according to
the National Retail
Federation.