Saturday, join millions across the nation It's easy to participate! Sign up at makeadifferenceday.com

MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY

It's the biggest week ever for volunteering. Hear about it on TV. Take action Saturday.

Sign up at makeadifferenceday.com

How do you bring together, for the first time, four of TV's hottest new stars? Give them a chance to talk about this week's hottest topic: volunteering.

Starting Monday, four major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox -- will slip messages about service into more than 60 of your favorite shows: dramas, comedies and reality alike. It's the centerpiece of I Participate, a multiyear effort to encourage Americans to volunteer led by the Entertainment Industry Foundation -- Hollywood's leading charity.

Millions will turn this TV inspiration into real-life action next Saturday on Make A Difference Day. For nearly two decades, on the fourth Saturday of October, USA WEEKEND's Make A Difference Day has inspired millions worldwide to feed, clothe, house, teach and soothe their neighbors.

"There's strength in numbers," says actress Eliza Dushku, star of Fox's Dollhouse. "People can band together on Make A Difference Day and say 'together we can.' " She's one of four stars who gathered in Los Angeles to represent their shows, their networks and their own commitment to helping others. Joining her: Nathan Fillion of ABC's "Castle," Hayden Panettiere of NBC's "Heroes" and Hill Harper of "CSI: NY" on CBS.

Dushku, 28, is just back from Uganda, where she met with the founder of THARCE-Gulu, a trauma healing and reflection center for former child soldiers. She used Twitter to spread the word about what she was doing there, hoping to get others to help, too.

That embodies the simple, powerful idea behind I Participate and Make A Difference Day: Studies show that nearly half of all people who volunteer started because they were asked to by someone they know.

Fillion, 38, responded when he co-founded his charity, Kids Need to Read, with good friend and children's book author PJ Haarsma. "I'd never been a volunteer, but if you turn to a friend and say, 'This is what I'm going to do, and I want you to join me,' it's fantastic," Fillion says. As the son of two English teachers, he knows one of the best ways to help kids is to give them access to books: "If you can teach a kid to read, he can do anything."

It was a co-worker who invited Panettiere, 20, to volunteer. She was 15 and filming "Shanghai Kiss;" crew member Jeff Pantukhoff, founder of the Whaleman Foundation, showed her footage of whales and dolphins and asked her to get involved. Since then, she has been on the front lines, trying to save them from slaughter.

Her advice is to find a cause you're passionate about: "When you have passion, you're not so easily deterred."

Harper, 43, learned by example. One set of grandparents took in needy strangers. Another grandparent ran a pharmacy -- one of the only places in segregated South Carolina where blacks could fill prescriptions. "I'd see him trade prescription products for sacks of potatoes or just give them away. He really served the community," he says.

Harper's service began when he was a student at Brown University and continued as he studied government and law at Harvard (President Obama was one of his classmates). Now, his Manifest Your Destiny Foundation helps underserved youth.

Harper knows the high that comes with helping. "Make A Difference Day is fantastic," he says. "That one day will multiply into many days because so many people will discover that volunteering is addictive."

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Saturday, join millions across the nation

Boca Raton, Fla.: Lucas Metropulos, began catching fresh fish for a food pantry two years ago. Today, he also teaches disadvantaged kids how to fish. On Make A Difference Day, Lucas and 15 volunteers will take about 25 underprivileged children on their first charter fishing trip. Lucas and his crew will help the youngsters clean and fillet their catches.

El Paso: Maida Apodaca will travel with a band of workers across the Mexican border to Juarez, where the group will build a two-room house for an impoverished family. This is Apodaca's 12th year of building homes for the poor on Make A Difference Day; she'll dedicate the house to actor/philanthropist Paul Newman. Apodaca was a national honoree in 2000, earning $10,000 from Newman for the El Paso-based charity Casas Por Cristo. "He was a special man," Apodaca says.

Columbus, Ohio: One lucky family will get the keys to a two-bedroom gray clapboard cottage, courtesy of Mission Viejo, Calif.-based Stone Equity Group. The real estate investment firm runs the Community Home Ownership Program, aimed at helping renters become homeowners.

West Chester, Pa.: Chester County Peace Movement supporters will box and mail the inventory of a month-long collection -- shoes, clothes, school supplies and toys -- for the needy in Afghanistan. "We don't support war," director Karen Porter says. "But we are supporting some really good soldiers."

Brandon, Fla.: About 150 Bank of America employees will join 100 community volunteers -- energized by pint-size philanthropist Zach Bonner, 11 -- to build a playground for A Kid's Place, a center for abandoned, abused and neglected children. The effort will be facilitated by the non-profit playground experts at KaBoom!

New York: Lisa Buksbaum, the founder of Soaringwords, a support network for chronically ill children, is coordinating more than 100 volunteers at each of 100 locations throughout North America to decorate pillows and quilts with inspirational messages for hospitalized kids.

Phoenix: Volunteers from the University of Phoenix will join HandsOn Network projects in Chicago, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and, of course, Phoenix. Make A Difference Day will jump-start a multiyear effort to promote volunteerism, starting with its network of more than 1 million students, faculty, staff and alumni. Teaming with HandsOn Network, the university aims to be a force in teaching volunteers through online courses.

Memphis: Children's book author Nick Katsoris hopes to rally 10,000 kids nationwide to help others. He'll read from his "Loukoumi" book series at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and has organized reading activities at bookstores and schools nationwide so kids can pledge to do a good deed.

Omaha: The Omaha Goodwill is partnering with Roncalli Catholic High School for a Make A Difference Day donation drive. More than 300 students will participate in the drive to support the city's 10 Goodwill retail/donation centers. Projects by Goodwill Industries in Baltimore, Little Rock and North Fort Myers, Fla., also are planned.

Eagan, Minn.: Miss Minnesota 2009 Brooke Kilgarriff and volunteers from Cheerful Givers will stuff birthday gift bags for needy kids at the Thomson Reuters corporate offices. The Miss America Organization encourages participation in Make A Difference Day. Other 2009 pageant winners taking part in projects include Miss Alabama Liz Cochran in Birmingham, Miss Illinois Erin O'Connor in Chicago and Miss Delaware Heather Lehman in Wilmington.

Jacksonville: Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation is planning blood drives at 11 area locations. Coughlin, head coach of the New York Giants, started the foundation to help kids with cancer and their families. The coach will join in by donating blood at a site near Giants Stadium.

U.S. Army Garrison Hohenfels, Germany: The community on base will collect school supplies and home and garden repair items for the people of Zabul Province, Afghanistan.

Las Vegas: Nearly 300 volunteers for Goodie Two Shoes, a non-profit that provides footwear for underprivileged kids in southern Nevada, will help 1,500 children choose a new pair of shoes. Volunteers will start their day with Newman's Own breakfast cereal. This is one of 50 projects nationwide that will receive free breakfast for volunteers.

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It's easy to participate!

Here's how:

The basics: Next Saturday, Oct. 24, millions of people will volunteer in their communities on USA WEEKEND's Make A Difference Day, sponsored in partnership with HandsOn Network and Newman's Own, which donates $10,000 to the charities of 10 selected efforts.

Volunteer as a family
Disney FamilyFun magazine funds a new $2,500 award to encourage and recognize family volunteering. The money goes to the family's charity of choice.

Help older people
AARP Create the Good funds two new $5,000 charitable awards to recognize projects that help older people stay in their homes.

Join Hollywood helpers
USA WEEKEND and the Entertainment Industry Foundation have joined forces to inspire service on Make A Difference Day and through EIF's I Participate program.

Watch us on WE TV
Make A Difference Day messages will air this week.

Make A Difference Day gives new shoes to 1,500 needy children.

More info at makeadifferenceday.com

Cover and cover story photographs by Robert Sebree for USA WEEKEND
Wardrobe styling: Marina Toybina
Panettiere's hair: Caroline Wiseman, makeup: Amy Oresman, J. Artist; Dushku's hair: Campbell McAuley, Solo Artists, makeup: Hiromi Inoko, Exclusive Artists; grooming for Harper, Fillion: Joanna Pensinger, Exclusive Artists
Fillion: sweater by Vince, jeans by Citizens of Humanity; Panettiere: top by Parkvogel, courtesy Java Jean Bar, Calif., jeans by Hudson, necklace by Creation by Charnae, earrings by Gorjana; Harper: shirt by John Varvatos, jeans by Ralph Lauren, belt by Diesel; Dushku: top by Union, jeans by JBrand