AmeriCorps CEO gets a look at a volunteer-heavy project to rebuild Louisiana’s vulnerable coast. Boston 25 News [Video]

VIOLET, La. — (AP) — A volunteer-heavy effort to restore some of Louisiana’s eroding coast with recycled oyster shells was part of the scenic backdrop Wednesday for a visit from the head of AmeriCorps, the federal agency that deploys volunteers to serve communities around the nation.

Michael Smith, the CEO of AmeriCorps, visited a storage area in the town of Violet, where he got a look at piles of oyster shells, many collected from Louisiana restaurants. They are being gathered and stored by the nonprofit Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, which uses them to build reefs along the vulnerable coast. The new reefs also provide new breeding ground for more oysters.

Smith used the visit not only to boost the oyster recycling effort but also to tout the importance of volunteer efforts in the area nearly 19 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.

“It’s …