In this series:
Breckin Meyer loves to make a difference with "pound puppies."
Comedian George Lopez helps folks back home
Emmy-winning talk show host Wayne Brady on helping
Moderator of "The View" recalls a poor boy
Papers lead readers to improve their cities
Never Give Up! By Dick Vitale
It's so Raven to help others

It's so Raven to help others

The Disney Channel star (and ex-Cosby kid) asks you to join Make A Difference Day.

By Raven

Raven, 17, stars in "That's So Raven" and a new Disney Channel movie, "The Cheetah Girls", airing next Friday. She is the spokeswoman for Disney Adventures All-Stars, a program that encourages kids to volunteer. On Make A Difference Day, Raven will join Disney VoluntEARS in a community project in L.A.

Some people might think you have to save the world in one try. But I think small.

I do charity work to help kids, and I speak to school groups, but I also try at least once a day to help someone in some little way, like give food to a homeless person or give someone a compliment. My mom calls it "a good deed for the day."

I don't know how it does it, I don't know why it does it, but it always makes me feel better. When you actually get out there and help someone, it always gives you a little spark in your day.

Kids especially need to try to make a difference, because we're going to have to run this world one day. We don't want to live in a world where everyone's mad at each other or where there's dirt everywhere. We want to make it better. Start now. Start on Make A Difference Day. Just do one little thing for someone else, and it will spread into something bigger. I know I will be volunteering that day!

Four or five years ago, I met a fan who had gone through some hard times. She was about to fail in school. Her family was living in the projects. She had followed my career and heard me talk about rejection in this business and how you just have to keep your head up. She said, "You really made a difference in my life. I had all these problems, and I just said, 'You know what? I'm going to finally do something for me. If Raven keeps her head up in bad times, so can I.' "

The girl flipped over a whole new card in her life. She got into college and is following her dream. I keep in contact with her, and she's doing well.

Until then, I never thought about the impact I could have. It was so cool. I told her, "Wow, girl! You have a lot more courage than I do!" She took my advice to a whole new level ... I mean, I was just talking about getting rejected from a movie!

I take my own advice more to heart now. That's why it's so exciting and inspiring to be involved with Make A Difference Day. It makes me feel great to be part of that chain of reaching out further and further to do good. If I can inspire someone to take part in Make A Difference Day, it's like I'm helping to feed people at the soup kitchen or build a new home for someone, or whatever it is those 3 million people will choose to do on Saturday, Oct. 25.

To know I might inspire people to go out and do something positive that day -- to know I had even a little part in that -- is just ridiculously amazing.

Saturday, Oct. 25, Make A Difference Day 2003
Don't miss out on the annual volunteering. Millions help others; millions of lives will be changed. What will you do? Start planning now.
Be eligible for $10,000. 10 Make A Difference Day participants will get $10,000 for charity from Newman's Own. Paul Newman, who donates all after-tax profits from sales of Newman's Own products to education and charity, has been part of Make A Difference Day for 10 years.

Get complete details at: -- makeadifferenceday.com
800-416-3824

Sponsors: USA WEEKEND and Points of Light Foundation
Photograph by George Lange, Disney Channel