Willie Neal had some visitors to his home on Bodley Street Friday.

Six members of AmeriCorps NCCC were working on his home Friday morning, putting a fresh coat of paint on the front of his home, cleaning his front yard and doing other chores Neal, a retired Navy veteran, is no longer able to do on his own.

The small team was part of a larger group of about 200 AmeriCorps volunteers performing community service work across the city. Some were at the Vicksburg National Military Park clearing brush for fire breaks, others were working around areas of Crawford Street, but the focus was on helping the veterans, either at their homes or at locations like American Legion Post 213 on Main Street and Post 3 on Monroe Street.

The workers were members of several AmeriCorps teams passing through the city on their way to Texas and graduation, assistant program director Stephanie Chan said.

“Most of these are people who worked doing hurricane relief in Texas and Florida and some in Puerto Rico,” she said. “They are in route to Texas for graduation.”

“Stephanie called me and said she had a whole bunch of teams coming in and she needed to find something for them to do,” Vicksburg housing director Gertrude Young said. “I knew Veterans Day was coming and began looking for veterans who needed help.”

Neal, who retired as a petty officer first class in 1986, said he saw Young at County Market, and she told him she was having trouble getting veterans to participate in the program.

“I told her, ‘You’ve got one now.’”

“I used to be able to do a lot of that stuff, but I can’t do it any more,” he said as he watched the volunteers working. “I’m glad to get the help. Once they get the front painted and the yard cleaned, it’ll be OK.”

While the group was working at Neal’s home, another group of volunteers was at Legion Post 213, cleaning out a room at The Hut.

“We have a room that we want for veterans, but it had a lot of stuff in it, and our members are unable to do it,” post commander Michelle Stewart said. “The AmeriCorps volunteers came in here and got it out.” Once the team cleaned the room, the members helped Stewart prepare a wall of honor for the post.

At the home of Herbert Jackson on Halls Ferry Road, a large group of AmeriCorps volunteers under the supervision of Habitat for Humanity director Abraham Green was preparing a ramp at the back door of his home.

“The American Legion called and asked if we wanted a ramp, and we told them yes,” Jackson’s daughter, Artelia Green Williams, a former Navy lieutenant commander and herself a veteran, said.

“It’s needed; I’ve fallen a couple of times trying to go down the stairs,” Jackson, 100, a World War II veteran of the Army Air Corps, said. “I’m glad to get the help.”

“He is still active and he still gets around,” Williams said of her father. “This will help him with his balance; we’re glad to get it.”