(Courtesy of Service Year Alliance)

First the life-size squirrels came out to tell Republicans that a proposed healthcare provision was “nuts.” Now, people dressed as dinosaurs rising from the long dead are warning against the extinction of the Corporation of National and Community Service, which funds tens of thousands of Americorps positions each year.

As a protest theme, “extinction makes the most sense given that there are 1 million people who have done AmeriCorps over the past 20 years,” says Aly Ferguson, the director of communications for the non-profit Service Year Alliance. “It’s a species of its own and all of these people who are in it right now would have no one else to follow in their footsteps.”

Service Year Alliance has been running the “Stop National Service Extinction” campaign since President Donald Trump proposed eliminating funding for the CNCS, which supports more than 80,000 volunteers through AmeriCorps programs, which provide a wide range of services.

“Funding community service and subsidizing the operation of nonprofit organizations is outside the role of the Federal Government,” reads Trump’s budget, which proposes carving up domestic research, social welfare, and arts programs while boosting military funding. “To the extent these activities have value, they should be supported by the nonprofit and private sectors and not with Federal subsidies provided through the complex Federal grant structure run by CNCS.”

Around 100 people are expected to don dino suits Wednesday morning to try to make sure those cuts don’t make it into the final budget. They can be found at eight sites (Union Station, White House, Freedom Plaza, Lincoln Memorial, Dupont Circle, and the Capitol South, Gallery Place, and Foggy Bottom Metro stations) before converging at the U.S. Capitol.

“Both Republicans and Democrats support service. It’s just a matter of making sure we break through,” Ferguson says. “We want not just to fund, but also to expand it. Our goal is to have a million young people serving every year withing a generation.”