Organizing for America | Cheryl Hunter's Blog: Community Service

Community Service

By Cheryl - Sep 4th, 2008 at 4:49 pm EDT

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Tags: Community Service, community services, palin, service nation, volunteering

     I have been involved in community services as a career since 1979. I worked for years with parks and recreation, YMCA, vocational support services for individuals with developmental disabilities, and I have a 14 year old son with Autism. Though I now own a business and serve the community in a for profit capacity, my sister and I still interject community service philosophies into that business. We have families who we know cannot afford our service and we find ways to help their children participate in our programs so that they will have something positive in their childhood experience through fitness, performing arts and self esteem building activities. Sports and related activities are ways which youth learn problem solving and social interaction skills that carry into their adult lives. These are our future leaders folks!

     I am not providing this info for a pat on the back, simply to preface the following information regarding community service and the GOP's mocking of its importance. Funny, the Republicans are quick to note that the best way to keep the hands of the needy out of their taxpaying pockets is for the community organizers to help "greedy little needies" be more self sufficient. So community services is the answer, yet they mock the administration who manages it all. As usual, the Democratic notion of raising each other up is a foreign language to the GOP. Palin stirred a great big can of &*$# when she picked on Obama's community service background! I am ready to open up a great big can of whoopass on her, are you ready to join me?


     If you are, read this article and then write to the organization about how you feel, while you're at it be sure to let the world know that McCain will be speaking at this forum...I wonder if the forum members will be thinking the same thing we will? What a hypocrite to downplay the importance of community service then use one of the largest organizations involved in the field for publicity, photo opp and vote begging?

     *********Kris Alingod - AHN News Writer

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) will both be participating at a forum on volunteerism and community service set for Sept. 11.

     The candidates will discuss separately their plans and thoughts about "the role of citizenship and service in post-9/11 America" on the first night of the forum. The two-day summit, called "A Nation of Service," will coincide with the the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and the annual "Tribute in Light"ceremony near Ground Zero. It will be moderated by Time magazine managing editor Richard Stengel.

     "The Summit will be an important remembrance of those that made the ultimate sacrifice serving their country and others as we focus on how to inspire others to serve causes greater than their own self-interest through national and community service," McCain told WNBC.

     "After Sept. 11, Americans of every age, race, region and walk of life were ready to step up and answer a new call of service for their country... Making that call to service will be a central cause of my presidency, "Obama is quoted by the NY Daily News.

     Both candidates have pledged to stop running negative campaign ads on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks after a non-profit group, MyGoodDeed.org, asked them to impose a moratorium to mark the day, according to ABC.

     *******Service Nation, Sept. 11-12 in New York city, will bring together 500 leaders of all ages and from every sector of American life —from universities and foundations, to business and politics—to celebrate the power and potential of citizen service, and lay out a bold policy blueprint for addressing America’s greatest social challenges through expanded opportunities for volunteer and national service.

     The Summit will begin with a presidential candidates' forum the evening of September 11, where Senators McCain and Obama will speak in depth about their views on the role of citizenship and service in post-9/11 America. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will welcome the attendees when the proceedings continue the following day, and the summit will conclude with a keynote address by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who earlier this year became the first governor to create a cabinet post dedicated to service and volunteering.

     The ultimate goal of the ServiceNation Summit, which will also promulgate a Declaration of Service that all Americans will be invited to sign, is to inspire an America in which, by 2020, 100 million citizens will volunteer time in schools, workplaces, and faith-based and community institutions each and every year (up from 61 million today), and that increasing numbers of Americans annually will commit a year of their lives to national service. that engages one million Americans a year in full-time service by the year 2020.

     The ServiceNation Summit is being co-chaired by Caroline Kennedy, Alma Powell (Chair of America’s Promise Alliance), TIME’s Richard Stengel, Vartan Gregorian (President of Carnegie Corporation of New York), and Bill Novelli (CEO of AARP). It is underwritten by a grant from Carnegie Corporation and Presented by TIME, AARP and Target.

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