Also: Millions geared up on Oct. 22 Tyra Banks show highlights volunteers Hurricane Relief projects Red Cross donations in the name of Make A Difference Day Around the nation and the world Fight hunger with Allrecipes.com Amy Grant Makes A Difference

A series on organizations in the volunteer world AmeriCorps leads the way ECHO teens at the YMCA Habitat for Humanity Soaringwords uses positive phrases to inspire ill children For seven years Golden Key chapters have participated

3 million gear up
for Make A Difference Day
By Laura Greenspan
For USA WEEKEND Magazine

Ten volunteers will receive Make A Difference Day Awards and share a $100,000 donation from philanthropist and actor Paul Newman. All who volunteer Saturday are eligible. The awards will be announced in April.

In Nashville, Tenn., a bank executive leaves voice mails. In Chicago, a real estate agent shops for bargains. And in Wisconsin, a 17-year-old cancer survivor trains for his longest bike ride.

Each will take part in Saturday's Make A Difference Day, a national volunteering event that propels 3 million people -- including celebrities, hockey players, corporations and hurricane victims -- to take action. The day, sponsored by USA WEEKEND Magazine in partnership with the Points of Light Foundation, is the nation's biggest day of volunteering.

Celebrity volunteers
People who make a living in the public spotlight are taking up the cause.

Amy Grant, host of NBC's "Three Wishes," will lead a food drive in Syracuse, N.Y., where she also performs that day.

News Editors: Attention Nashville, Shreveport. Moving on National and Lifestyle wires. Spot story will move after 5 p.m. EDT Saturday. To localize: Make this your preview of the day's local activities by adding interesting items from your area.

Entertainer Naomi Judd will donate 25,000 copies of her children's book "Gertie the Goldfish" to kids affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.- Syndicated talk show host Tyra Banks will urge audience members and staff to donate professional attire to Dress for Success, a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged women enter the work force.

Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand will perform their country-bluegrass music for kids and families at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

National Hockey League players from the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Los Angeles Kings will cheer sick children with visits to University Children's Hospital at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center. "The kids idolize us. You have to do it. I don't even think it's a choice," says J.S. Giguere, Mighty Ducks goaltender.

Taking the lead
The three who are influencing others:
In Nashville, Mike Edwards, regional president of First Tennessee, is leading efforts at his bank's 38 Nashville-area branches. Ninety employees -- more if his voice-mail messages have their intended effect -- will paint, clean and landscape at three nonprofits in Nashville and Williamson County. Volunteer center Hands On Nashville helped coordinate. Being a community leader, "means more than writing checks," Edwards says. "It means rolling up your sleeves and getting employees involved."

In Chicago, Ramsey Al-Ramahi, of Baird & Warner real estate, got a new $350 swing set for $100 through the Web site Craig's List. The swing set will be centerpiece of a playground renovation at a women's and children's shelter. About 25 agents and office staff Saturday will weed the courtyard, repaint faded hopscotch and basketball court markings and tear down dilapidated equipment to make way for new items.

In Burlington, Wis., David McNutt has one goal: "I wanted to raise money for cancer patients like me." The teen raised $17,000 for cancer research, much of it in cycling events. His fundraising qualified him to ride with cyclist Lance Armstrong in the Ride for the Roses this weekend in Austin, Texas. McNutt's longest cycling event so far has been 35 miles. His goal this weekend: 70 miles.

Hurricane survivors help
Many volunteers aim to help Gulf Coast hurricane< victims with fundraisers and collections of practical items. Katrina victims are volunteering, too. Eddie Patton, a displaced defense lawyer from Biloxi, noticed how staff from the Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities cared for disabled and elderly evacuees' needs at a Jackson shelter where he sought refuge.

To help the coalition, he has spent the past two weeks removing spoiled food from the refrigerators of disabled and elderly people in the area. Saturday he'll distribute emergency preparedness kits as the coalition has its first in a series of workshops to prepare residents for future disasters.

In Bossier City, La., Apollo Elementary School fifth-graders are collecting books for New Orleans schools. Elena Dieck -- one of two former New Orleans teachers now working at Apollo -- will deliver the collection to her former school, which has reopened. She's in Bossier City because her home was destroyed. "They've lost everything in their houses, and then they go to school and the school doesn't have anything either," Dieck says. "They're going to love it."