By Terry Byrne
USA WEEKEND

OCTOBER 25, 2003: Three million volunteers in Saturday's Make A Difference Day, the world's largest community service event, raised money, spirits and roofs in a simultaneous outpouring of caring. "My hat's off not just to the volunteers helping, but to all those who ask for help along the way," said singer-songwriter Amy Grant, who led one of the thousands of Make A Difference Day efforts, an Easy Spirit 5K to raise scholarships for Dollars for Scholars. The brisk walk took place at the headquarters of USA WEEKEND Magazine, which created Make A Difference Day in 1992.

Other volunteers around the country included multi-national corporations and a teenaged Disney star, a Cabinet secretary and a child with cancer.

Raven, the 17-year-old star of "That's So Raven," wore a Jessica Rabbit get-up as she made crafts with countless kids at the 10th annual Dream Halloween Los Angeles benefit for the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation. The event is expected to raise $1 million. "Make A Difference Day is really cool," she says. "If you know that everybody is doing something on this one special day, it definitely makes you feel you're part of something important."

Financial giant Citigroup charged through projects in two dozen major cities -- mostly adding people power to Habitat for Humanity builds. In Sioux Falls, where 3,200 Citibank South Dakota employees outnumber most cities in the state, 120 volunteers adopted the nearby village of Baltic, pop. 900. They painted every surface -- from picnic shelters they installed, park bleachers and public restrooms to the inside of a volunteer fire station. Special attention was paid to the house of retired nurse and widow Elinor Moon, 84, who, local legend says, has helped raise every child in town. Two dozen employees white-washed her peeling two-bedroom ranch home. "The white identifies my house," she said, "as a secure place for the children."

INTERIOR CLEANING: USA WEEKEND Magazine CEO Marcia Bullard, center, and Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton clear brush from a river park in Washington, D.C., Saturday in a joint effort by Make A Difference Day and Take Pride in America. (Download and save a high resolution image for your use) Photo by Ralph Alswang

A more famous White House supported Make A Difference Day, too: Dozens of volunteers from the Bush administration's USA Freedom Corps and the U.S. Department of the Interior's Take Pride in America helped hundreds of Points of Light Foundation, AmeriCorps, DisneyHand, non-profit, business and D.C. government workers clean-sweep a blighted neighborhood in D.C.'s Anacostia section. Interior Secretary Gale Norton rolled up her sleeves: "I started off pulling invasive species, in other words, 'weeds,' then migrated to picking up trash: Styrofoam containers, plastic bottles, tennis balls and even thongs -- I mean flip-flops!" Norton surveyed the youngest volunteers, first- and second-graders, with pride: "It's terrific to see them learning what they can do to take care of the lands they'll inherit." Nicholas Marriam of Clayton, N.C. -- a 10-year-old cancer survivor who for three Make A Difference Days has buoyed parents and kids with cancer -- received a surprise boost of his own from the syndicated "Wayne Brady Show" which featured him in a recent segment. Producers persuaded Toys "R" Us to donate $10,000 in stuffed toys to Nicholas's project and -- because he hopes to grow up to be a doctor one day -- Kellogg's made a $25,000 down-payment on his college education.

Overseas, 1,000 UPS employees delivered help in 14 markets; CEO Mike Eskew and 60 employees built a computer lab for a grade school in China's remote Hebei province.

And in Jackson, Miss., it was "Hooray for Diffendoofer Day" as America Reads tutors and Jackson State University students began painting a mural on an unsightly viaduct just a stone's throw from George Elementary School. The homage to Dr. Seuss's last book will inspire the kids, says tutor Ella Holmes: "This will be a conversation piece for the children that will re-establish a sense of pride and possibility in the community."

By day's end, 3 million Make A Difference Day volunteers left thousands of communities stronger.

Volunteers will now report their day's accomplishments to organizers who will review all efforts. Paul Newman and his food company, Newman's Own, awards $100,000 in charitable donations to exemplary efforts; the awards will be announced in a special issue of USA WEEKEND Magazine in April.

The next Make A Difference Day is Saturday, Oct. 23, 2004.

Volunteers ready across the nation
These are just a few of the many good deeds planned. To find projects near you, visit our DAYtaBANK.

OCTOBER 19: Since 1992, Make A Difference Day has united millions of Americans on the fourth Saturday in October. This year, it's also uniting non-profits that otherwise might never cross paths.

New York City is a model in collaboration as 100 volunteers from corporate giant Citigroup, service group City Year, the NYC2012 Olympic committee, and teens from the Harlem YMCA and city youth programs revitalize an East Harlem park and rec center, grooming athletic fields and painting murals. Afterward, a few Olympians intend to groom the youth with calisthenics and pickup hoops. Twenty Citigroup-led efforts occur nationwide.

First Book and the Veterans of Foreign Wars are on a mission to put 100,000 books into the hands of military dependents. After a month-long collection from publishers and businesses nationwide, VFW Ladies Auxiliary members will help distribute titles and read to children at bases such as Texas' Fort Hood and North Carolina's Fort Bragg. "Our message to these kids is that, even with their parents deployed, others care about what happens to them," says VFW's Mike Gormalley.

Thousands of UAW and General Motors goodwill ambassadors will steer $1 million or more to their partner in charity, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, granting untold numbers of wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions. In Athens, Tenn., Chevrolet-Cadillac partner Steve Danneman is pitching in to send Isabel Dwyer, 9, who has Rett syndrome and can't talk, on a Florida trip to "communicate" with dolphins. Because UAW-GM has vowed to match donations up to $10,000, Danneman plans to pass the hat among fellow Kiwanians.

In Washington, D.C., government workers, non-profit groups and businesses have teamed up for an environmental cleanup in the city's Anacostia section. Hundreds of volunteers are expected from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Take Pride in America program, The Walt Disney Co., USA Freedom Corps, AmeriCorps/NCCC, the D.C. Commission on National and Community Service, D.C. Parks and Recreation, the Earth Conservation Corps, Points of Light Foundation and USA WEEKEND Magazine.

"We're going to roll up our shirt sleeves and volunteer to make a difference for the community and for the public lands that Americans love and enjoy so much," says Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton. Joining in: Faith Ford, star of "Hope & Faith". At the conclusion of the day, volunteers will be treated to a preview of Disney's upcoming animated movie "Brother Bear".

Retailers hope you'll combine Saturday errands with doing good. BJ's Wholesale Clubs across the country invite young shoppers to decorate and fill bags with handmade thank-you cards and necessities for men and women in the military. Volunteers from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, D.C., will be in Hecht's stores selling their new cookbook, with all proceeds benefiting the clubs.

Special Olympics and the National Federation of State High School Associations have teamed up nationally to "Make The Point." High school students will hold free-throw fund-raisers for Special Olympics athletes and encourage acceptance of people with mental retardation.

The National Federation of the Blind in California's San Fernando Valley will take 16 blind or visually impaired adults on a whale-watching trip off the coast of Santa Barbara with 11 youth from Children of Destiny, a mentoring program in Long Beach. The kids, many of whom feel they've nothing to offer, will describe what they see to the blind, who'll give insight to the kids about beating limitations.

-- Terry Byrne

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Amy Grant walks for scholarships

"Helping people is learned behavior," says singer Amy Grant, who'll spend Oct. 25 striding USA WEEKEND's campus in Virginia in the Easy Spirit Freedom Walk for Education. The walk, the final in a series of six this fall, raises funds for Scholarship America, which helps needy students.

She recalls her mother instructing her at age 8 to give some of her allowance as a church offering. "They would maybe give me $1 for the week, and I would think, 'How can I put a quarter in?!' One time I was sweating when that plate came by; I put 25 cents in, and I knew that was one of four ice cream cones I could buy at the beach, and, oh, it rubbed me so wrong."

Later that day, she was diving into a pool and saw something shiny at the bottom: a quarter. "I don't know what was going on," she says, "but it was such a lesson that if you're afraid to give things away, you'll never experience the mystery of how you get it back."

For more information, go to walkforeducation.org.

Photograph by Matthew Jordan Smith for USA WEEKEND.
STYLING CREDITS: Ripa: Makeup by Doreen A. Gillis; hair by Richard Esposito. Ford: Makeup by Lynn Campbell, The New York Office; hair by Michelle Johnson. Styling by Patricia Field. Prop stylist: Gonzalo Garcia, Mark Edward Inc.
Clothing: Ripa's dress by Christian Dior; Ford's dress by Badgley Mischka.