Before spring break, not many students on campus could have said what the American Civic Association did. All that changed, however, when a lone gunman shot and killed 13 people and himself on April 3.

Joe Picalila, AmeriCorps VISTA of the scholar’s program, said it’s unfortunate that knowledge of the organization only changed because of the sudden and unexpected work of a deranged madman. Picalila works to promote programs between Binghamton University’s campus and the community.

The American Civic Association was founded on Pine Street in 1939 by 11 immigrants. It is now located on 131 Front St. in Binghamton, but the office has been closed to the public since the shooting occurred. A temporary alternate location for services is being discussed.

University spokeswoman Gail Glover said although there is no formal relationship between BU and the ACA, the administration knows that many members of the campus community “take advantage of the programs hosted by the ACA.”

The ACA has the mission of helping refugees and immigrants who come to the United States, said Andrew Baranoski, executive director of the American Civic Association.

“The American Civic Association has been dedicated to helping newcomers to this nation forge a path to tomorrow,” he said.

Baranoski said the center provides new arrivals from dozens of countries with assimilation services.

“Such services include counseling, citizenship, family reunification and assistance with obtaining green cards and visas,” he said. “The center also promotes racial community and religious harmony.”

There are many faculty and staff who are not native-born, Picalila said.

“I’m sure in the past there have been faculty and staff that have used the services of the ACA,” he said. “They help out with a wide variety of issues.”

Picalila said BU has had a great and longstanding partnership with the center. Programs have been organized through the scholar’s program to promote the efforts of the ACA.

George Catalano, director of the Scholars Program, said that these programs began two years ago.

“This is our fourth semester doing them,” he said.

Catalano said one of the components of the Scholars Program is its contribution to the community.

“We have done lots of things with them in the past,” he said. “The agency and the students were happy, so everyone benefited.”

One of these programs, Picalila said, was assisting the ACA in the creation of a database during the fall semester.

“Students were able to organize a database by ZIP codes so that the ACA could request certain grants that they could not request before,” he said. “The students were very successful at enhancing this database and they made it very easy to use.”

Another scholar’s project was organizing of archives in the ACA’s basement last year.

“The ACA has a lot of old records that were no longer any good,” Picalila said. “Students in the Scholars Program worked diligently to organize and file client profiles and paperwork.”

The Scholars Program, Picalila said, also helped out with the multi-cultural holiday children’s festival in December 2008. One hundred and fifty or more children are usually in attendance at the festival, and range from the age of four to 12.

“Students in the Scholar’s Program donated books and new or slightly used toys to the festival,” he said.

This semester, Picalila said, students are working on an “All Nations Ball.” Three students have worked on this all semester since February.

“Students helped by soliciting advertisements and working on design layout of a booklet using Microsoft Publisher,” Picalila said. “They would sell advertising in the book to businesses that would buy advertisement space in the booklet.”

The All Nations Ball is one of the key fundraisers for the ACA, Picalila said.

Students from the Scholars Program have also been working on an immigrant and refugee workshop series this semester.

“In this program students would teach people new to the society how to do such tasks as filling out certain forms and use the Internet,” Picalila said. “In this way they helped immigrants and refugees to better themselves and to fit in a new culture and society.”

Picalila said students gained a lot from these programs.

“Students were able to identify and empathize with people who were not of this country,” he said. “Many of these people were in an awkward place for the first time, like many freshmen in college are as well.”

At this time, Picalila said, we are not sure to what capacity we are going to continue these programs.

“We do not know how we are going to continue to work with the ACA in the future, but we do plan to continue working with them,” Picalila said. “It’s unfortunate that it takes one terrible event to change things.”

The American Civic Association, Baranoski said, will return to its headquarters at 131 Front St.

“Our return is not a question of if, but when,” he added.

“As we emerge from this horrible episode, we will remember all those we have lost — colleagues, students and friends,” Baranoski said. “However, our focus will still be on tomorrow. That’s our mission.”