HOUGHTON – By day, they offer one-on-one reading help to catch kids up before early literacy issues short-circuit academic careers. By night and on the weekends, they’re winterizing houses, collecting books to give away and helping out anywhere there’s a need. They do it all for barely enough money to live on, plus a little extra toward their college educations.

So who are these understated superheroes? They’re the 16 young men and women of Superior Americorps, who’ve each dedicated a year to community service before heading back to school or hitting the job market.

“I love it, love how I can come in and use my creativeness,” said Brittany Kuopus, an Americorps service worker from Dollar Bay. “Now I’m hoping to get my teaching certificate in the future.”

Kuopus spends three days a week working with 3- to 5-year-old students in Robin Orr’s class at BHK Child Development’s Rod Liimatainen Child Development Center in Houghton, one day at another school, and countless hours on other service projects.

Orr said Kuopus made a huge difference for some of the kids needing individual help.

“I don’t always have time to break away one-on-one,” Orr said, crediting Kuopus with the rapid progress of one student who couldn’t hold a pencil correctly at the beginning of the school year, but has nearly caught up to the class after some personal attention.

Kuopus has also gone above and beyond with preparing activities that engage particular interests, she added.

“Brittany’s incredible,” McCrumb said. “She’ll look on the computer at night and find games for the kids.”

One student doesn’t pay much attention to anything other than cars, Orr said. Kuopus solved the dilemma by creating a toy car track with painter’s tape on the floor, with letters placed alongside. She got the students to practice saying the letters each time their cars passed them, improving literacy while they played.

Jamie McCrumb, who manages Superior Americorps for BHK Child Development, said the program’s core mission is literacy, and each of this year’s 16 Americorps members have daily duties in preschools or early elementary classes in Baraga, Houghton and Keweenaw Counties. They’re also supposed to spend many of the 1,700 required hours of their commitment volunteering in the community, and members often take the lead in engaging community organizations or even creating service projects from scrap.

This year’s students have helped put up the Copper Harbor Christmas light display, collected books to give away to families, and will take part in a Houghton Energy Efficiency Team home winterization project. Last year’s crew created the evening Camp Readaway event at the Copper Country Mall, which included activities, games and books for families to take home.

“When we’re bringing members in we’re asking them to serve the community organizations that need help to be part of the community and give back to it,” McCrumb said.

Americorps doesn’t pay much – a $12,500 stipend plus $5,700 towards student loans or future college expenses for those that finish the commitment – but the year of service can pay off in the long run.

“I hear that a lot of employers specifically recruit Americorps members,” McCrumb said, noting the program is known for teaching responsibility.

For some members still feeling their way, the Americorps experience helps them set a career path for the rest of their life, she noted.

“I was proud that last year, after they did this, a few members knew what direction they wanted to go in,” McCrumb said. “Some wanted to be a teacher.”

A few members liked the Americorps experience so much they signed back up. Members can receive the education award for two years, McCrumb said, and two of this year’s members are back for a third year, even without the college money.

McCrumb said there will be about 20 Americorps slots open for 2016-17, with 12-month commitments beginning in the fall. Members can be high school graduates taking a year off before or during college, or college grads who want to spend a year serving others before setting out on careers.

She won’t start recruiting officially until March or April, McCrumb said, but anyone interested in learning more about the program can check out superioramericorps.org or call her at 487-6600, extension 130.