Change the world

By helping out others Saturday, Oct. 27, we can help restore hope in our hearts, homes, communities and, ultimately, the nation. Millions of people volunteer on Make A Difference Day. Please join in!

By Marcia Bullard President, CEO & Editor, USA WEEKEND

In this article:
Answering the need to help
Kermit the Frog lends a flipper
Serving up love: A life-changing story of Martina Hingis

Perry Flicker, shown at a memorial to the Sept. 11 terrorist victims, responded to people in need. Next weekend, millions of Americans will do the same.

Lyz Glick issued an important message to each of us after last month's terrorist attacks. Her husband, Jeremy, was one of the passengers aboard Flight 93 who, over Pennsylvania, thwarted the hijackers' plan to use the jet as another terrorist bomb.

"It shows that one person can make a difference," Lyz Glick said. "One person in the country has the opportunity to change this world."

Those words are a call to action. Next Saturday, Oct. 27, is the nation's largest day of volunteering -- Make A Difference Day. This year, the day presents a special opportunity for every American to reinforce a powerful message -- that one person can make a difference.

Long before Sept. 11, people around the nation had planned to volunteer in their communities on Oct. 27 -- to collect books for poor children, to stock food banks, to clean roadways and rivers. Now many more have planned projects to benefit the victims of terrorism.

We started Make A Difference Day in the pages of USA WEEKEND Magazine 10 years ago. It was a simple idea -- asking each reader to spend one Saturday a year helping someone in need. That simple idea mushroomed thanks to the generosity of small children and large charities, individual communities and multinational corporations. Now it is the country's most active day of volunteering -- more than 2.6 million people will participate next weekend, from the city leaders of Los Angeles to kindergartners in Ormond Beach, Fla. With our partners, the Points of Light Foundation and Paul Newman of Newman's Own, we have watched the day broaden into an annual source of inspiration, a national day of doing good.

This year, because of the Sept. 11 tragedies, we are presented with a special opportunity, perhaps even a special responsibility, to make the day a vibrant testimonial to the values that set apart the United States of America. Caring and reaching out to those who are in need -- not just in New York or Washington, but everywhere in the country -- are essential elements of our national character. This is the most basic way Americans demonstrate their belief that all citizens deserve an equal chance at life, liberty and happiness. Make A Difference Day puts aside the debate over whether volunteering is a short-term fix or a long-term policy.

On Oct. 27, honors students at Central Michigan University will do yard work in exchange for a donation to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

In Phoenix, 4,000 volunteers, including prison inmates, will make flash cards for special education classes.

In Washington, D.C., one boy will collect treats for his fellow cancer patients at Children's Hospital.

We ask you to make a difference. What can you do?

l Spend some time next Saturday addressing the needs of someone less fortunate. For ideas, call your local volunteer center or city hall; call our hot line, 1-800-416-3824; or visit makeadifferenceday.com.

l Refocus on your community: As attention naturally shifted to the terrorist victims, many community leaders feared that outreach at the local level would drop. Now, indeed, community food banks -- many already depleted -- need replenishing. Ongoing efforts to teach children and immigrants to read, to build homes for the poor, to repair damage from natural disasters always need volunteers.

l Honor local rescue workers, who labor year-round, with donations of supplies and your skills.

l Tag a pledge onto your volunteer activity to benefit the victims of terrorism through the Make A Difference Day Scholarship Fund (see article above).

l Tell us what you did (see form, next page). In coming issues, USA WEEKEND Magazine will publish your stories and distribute $100,000 to charities.

Spending one day helping someone in need can't solve all the world's problems. But it can make a difference. It is a start.

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Answering the need to help

Like millions of other people, Perry Flicker saw the World Trade Center towers collapse on TV. The world's towers, he thought. How could he sit by and watch? So when he heard volunteers were needed to deliver water, Gatorade, candy and goggles to the disaster site, he raced the 35 miles from his office in New Jersey to what became known as Ground Zero.

After that first exhausting and terrifying day in ash-covered ruins, he remained there. For two weeks, Flicker submerged himself in a personal need to help others, just as all Americans began a universal, marathon effort to shore up the human spirit.

"There were mounds of supplies on a dock there, so I couldn't leave," says Flicker, 36, a hardware production supervisor for Intel Corp. in Parsippany. "I just started working on the pile. All night, sorting jeans, PowerBars, flashlights, gloves, sweatshirts, T-shirts. Then it just kept coming. I was up three and a half straight days without sleep. There was too much that needed to be done."

Wyoming vs. terrorism: Funds for the victims will be collected at the University of Wyoming's Oct. 27 game against Nevada-Las Vegas.

Without any credentials or training, he ran a vital supply center for donated goods at St. Joseph's Chapel, at the Hudson River, a block away from the twin towers' remains.

Previously, Flicker was hardly a career volunteer. He had visited sick and lonely senior citizens. He had helped out with Salvation Army drives. Now, he'll never look at volunteers the same way.

"I couldn't get over the humility and compassion for people there," he says. "Firefighters were walking on shards and twisted metal to try to find survivors, and they were thanking me. Thanking me? That's incredible. Nobody felt like a hero there. We all just felt like people who had something to do."

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TOGETHER ON MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY: Kermit the Frog joins kids from Fresh Youth Initiatives, a children's volunteer program in the Washington Heights section of New York City. A $10,000 donation from the Jim Henson Company will help further the children's good works on Oct. 27, which include a school beautification project, making sleeping bags for the homeless and painting murals to honor victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Photos by TODD PLITT for USA WEEKEND (Flicker); JASON S. ROESELER for USA WEEKEND (Wyoming); RICHARD TERMINE for USA WEEKEND (Kermit)