In this article: Good vibes rock the planet What's next? Action around the nation

Make A Difference Day

You helped!

3 million people improved communities nationwide on USA WEEKEND's 16th annual day of volunteering.

By Terry Byrne

For the 16th year, volunteers nationwide were out in full force, united in a common mission of uncommon caring: Make A Difference Day. Thousands of efforts supported by 3 million Americans changed lives Oct. 28.

Some made history. The first-ever "Katrina Cottage" to be called home by a family outside the Gulf storm zone made its debut in Silver Spring, Md. -- a gift from USA WEEKEND Magazine, which sponsors Make A Difference Day in partnership with the Points of Light Foundation and actor/philanthropist Paul Newman. Three dozen volunteers braved 40-mph wind gusts to make the dream come true for Phyllis Johnson, 59, and daughter Zabrina.

The project is also the realization for a group of socially conscious designers, engineers and builders, called the Congress for the New Urbanism. Their goal: to provide affordable, dignified, small but sturdy housing for the needy -- not only in the Gulf, but in every pocket of the country.

The house, donated by Housing International Inc., was given through a program of the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs. "We really need it. We really do," said an emotional Johnson, who is debilitated by diabetes, several strokes and failing eyesight.

In New York City, high winds couldn't sidetrack 60-plus HarperCollins, First Book and U.S. Coast Guard volunteers from reading with 40 children at the South Street Seaport Museum in Lower Manhattan. A cutter carried special cargo: 7,000 of 17,000 new books donated by HarperCollins for disadvantaged children. Actress Joan Allen, attending with daughter Sadie, 12, said: "These kids get so many things that are used. It's so respectful and exciting to give brand-new books they can take home." Said Coast Guard Capt. Bob O'Brien: "We're known as the lifesavers, but we also like to look at the quality of life. What we're doing here adds quality to lives from the very beginning."

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GOOD VIBES ROCK THE PLANET:
A sampling of efforts covering needs big and small

More than 50 U.S. troops, civilian military employees and contractors spent four hours ridding Baghdad streets of 100 bags of trash in their "Clearing the Walkway to Peace" mission. Said organizer and Army Corps of Engineers Capt. Candace Hurley: "Every year I participate. Just because I am deployed should not stop me. The best part: It spurred volunteerism in our Iraqi neighbors."

While 15 Dallas-based Travelocity employees planted 50 bur oak seedlings along a hiking trailto help offset carbon emissions caused by travel, 24 volunteers from the online travel company helped Friends of Red Rock Canyon and 180 friends re-vegetate and restore desert areas damaged during wildfires near Las Vegas.

To offset everyday hunger, Kentucky's fourth annual statewide beef stew drive proved a heated competition. Nearly 350,000 ounces were collected, with AmeriCorps programs ladling in about 80% of the total.

In L.A., an estimated 3,000 teens, plus an additional 1,000 adults, stepped up to a challenge issued by Connect LA to develop and commit to year-round Make A Difference Day efforts. One group, supervised by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, cleared a 300-yard alley of junked vehicles, sofas and TVs, while also eradicating graffiti. A different group packed lunches for the homeless, while another filled backpacks withsupplies for needy school kids.

Ten friends, including a chiropractor, washed the feet of at least 100 residents ages 2 to 80 in the rural, depressed mill town of Rumford, Maine, symbolically helping them put their "best foot forward" and literallyhelping them don 300 donated pairs of shoes and socks.

"Box cities" were set up in 12 communities in seven states, including Inman, Kan.; Littleton, Colo.; and Warren, Ohio, by 199 Sheltered Reality members, ages 7-18, and their escorts. They spent the night out in the cold to drum up awareness for the homeless. (Quite literally: The percussion group uses music to motivate.) More than $9,400 was collected to provide stuffed animals to homeless kids.

After salvaging what was left two weeks earlier, Mark Bertrand of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., made a special Make A Difference Day trip back to Hancock County, Miss., to demolish the combined home and radio station for WQRZ owner Brice Phillips. Phillips had received a presidential award for volunteerism after staying on the air during Hurricane Katrina with vital emergency information. Bertrand's fledgling non-profit, The Giving Circle, aims to rebuild the station as a steel dome structure.

C&S Wholesale Grocers, based in Keene, N.H., in partnership with America's Second Harvest, swooped in to help 13 food banks and pantries in nine states. Volunteers mostly painted, spruced up and repacked food for distribution.

And at MySpace.com, 629 people signed on as "friends" of Smyrna, Tenn., blogger Carol Abraham, 38, an unemployed IT sales professional and mom of two, to do projects close to their homes and hearts, at her urging. "I've had people tell me it has changed their life and rekindled their faith in people," Abraham said. Despite its shady reputation lately, "there are good things in MySpace. We've enlarged the neighborhood; MySpace is changing the way we all look at strangers."

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What's next:
We're reviewing all the good deeds and narrowing the search for 10 National Make A Difference Day Awards. The recipients, who receive a total of $100,000 for their charities from Paul Newman, will be announced in USA WEEKEND in April.

The next Make A Difference Day is Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007.