Also: 3 million gear 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 improve communities nationwide
Make A Difference Day triggers a flood of action and compassion
By Laura Greenspan
For USA WEEKEND Magazine

Naomi Judd, in her fourth year of supporting Make A Difference Day volunteering, reads her brand-new children's book, Gertie the Goldfish and the Christmas Surprise, to youngsters at Williamson County Public Library in her hometown of Franklin, Tenn., Saturday. Photo by John Russell More on Naomi's Day View larger image Download Hi-Res image. 1.6MB JPG, 3000x2126 pixels

Saturday, Oct. 22 -- Armed with shovels, paint brushes, cash and compassion, volunteers of all ages used the nation's largest day of service to build, beautify, bankroll and befriend neighbors down the street and across the country.

"Wherever you are, give yourself a round of applause for making a difference to your community and your country," First Lady Laura Bush wrote in an official greeting to participants in the 15th Make A Difference Day, created by USA WEEKEND Magazine in partnership with the Points of Light Foundation.

Weather affected volunteer plans. Uncertainty about Hurricane Wilma's arrival forced cancellation of some well-manned Florida efforts, and rain in the Northeast led to last-minute changes and postponements.

But the sun was shining in Bossier City, La., where Apollo Elementary School fifth-graders concluded their weeklong book drive for New Orleans schools and created a memory garden to memorialize Hurricane Katrina's victims and honor her heroes.

"They're so fired up," said teacher Dawn Coker. The Make A Difference Day project is a fifth-grade privilege, and Coker's pupils consider it the year's highlight. "We've been snapping pictures all morning, and it'll be in the yearbook."

The students collected more than 1,000 books and sorted them in laundry baskets by grade level. Fellow teacher Elena Dieck, a Katrina victim herself, will deliver the books to New Orleans schools. Dieck lost her home to Hurricane Katrina and has settled in Bossier City with her family. Like many New Orleans teachers, she lost all her teaching resource material and the class library she had acquired over the years. "They're going to love it," she says.

In Nashville, Tenn., 90 employees from 38 First Tennessee bank branches and about 30 family members and friends stripped wallpaper, painted, cleaned, loaded hay and landscaped at three nonprofits in Nashville and Williamson County.

Megan Bryant, 14, joined her mother at Backfield in Motion, an inner-city sports league. Bryant, who spent the day painting walls, said she had to think hard about giving up her Saturday but was glad she had. "I see how fortunate I am, and I won't take it for granted," she said.

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Mike Edwards, the bank's Nashville region president, had fretted that the turnout would be too low but by mid-afternoon Saturday he could confidently predict that all planned projects would be completed. "Hopefully it did make a difference," he said.

In the nation's capital, a steady, chilly rain accompanied more than 200 Make A Difference Day volunteers as they put finishing touches on a reclamation effort that began almost 5 years ago. Among the accomplishments in the Watts Branch Park area: A night club where Motown singer and D.C. native Marvin Gaye once performed transformed into a community center, landscaping at an outdoor amphitheater, trail improvements and mulch at the base of 1,000 trees. "It was the worst part of the worst park in the capital, the most crime-ridden park," said volunteer organizer Steve Coleman. "This is a dream come true."

In rain-soaked Baltimore, 282 volunteers gave an inner-city elementary school a dramatic facelift. Among the volunteers painting the school cafeteria: rapper Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC. "You name it, I'll paint it, that's my job today -- Mr. Painter Man," said McDaniels. He said he joined in because he wanted to lead by example. "It's a beautiful day in spite of all the rain and mud and slush," said principal Erma Jefferson. The biggest change her students will see on Monday? The school's asphalt play yard is gone, replaced with an oasis of green grass - 40,000 square feet of sod laid by volunteers on Saturday. "They might not want to do anything in the classroom," predicted Jefferson. "They're going to be excited." The project was initiated by Timberland, the N.H. shoe and clothing manufacturer, as part of its corporate campaign to improve communities where its products are sold.

Other corporate efforts included:

In 22 cities, Citigroup offices hammered nails for Habitat for Humanity, cleaned up neighborhoods, raised money for Katrina victims and other causes and taught financial skills.

Notre Dame alumni clubs partnered with lawn equipment manufacturer Toro on yard work or landscaping projects in Columbia, S.C.; Charlottesville, Va.; Buffalo, N.Y.; and the New Jersey Shore.

Nationwide, about 650 GM dealers signed on for the company's Make A Difference Day-Make A Wish Foundation partnership, pledging at least $500 to the local Make A Wish organization today. In addition, Dallas-Fort Worth Saturn dealers and Memphis, Tenn., GM dealerships ran special promotions to raise additional funds. Using proceeds from last year's Make A Difference Day contributions, Wisconsin GM dealers treated a 17-year-old cancer patient and his family to a trip to Austin, Texas, to participate in Lance Armstrong's Ride for the Roses today. The cancer patient, David McNutt, earned the chance to ride with Armstrong by raising $17,000 for cancer research.

In Chicago, 32 Baird & Warner real estate offices closed for the day so employees could complete Make A Difference Day projects. The effort was a way to celebrate the family-run company's 150th birthday. One office renovated a playground at a women's shelter and coordinated a meal for 150 residents prepared by a renowned Chicago chef. Agents at another office found contractors willing to rebuild a porch, renovate a kitchen and install a handicap-accessible bathroom at group homes for developmentally disabled adults. "The ones who are really blessed are us for being able to participate," said Realtor Marlene Rubenstein, whose office organized the group home makeovers.

Celebrities make a difference

Amy Grant, Christian pop singer and host of NBC's Three Wishes -- in Syracuse, N.Y., for a concert with the symphony -- sponsored a weeklong food drive that netted more than 1,000 nonperishable items for the local Salvation Army.

National Hockey League players from the Anaheim Mighty Ducks - goaltender J. S. Giguere and forward Sergei Federov -- distributed goodie bags of team trinkets and decorated pumpkins with a handful of sick kids at University Children's Hospital at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center. After their morning practice, the Los Angeles Kings skated with four children facing life-threatening illnesses. The Make A Wish Foundation arranged for the four boys, ages 6 to 15, to attend the practice and tour the locker room after the skate session.

Country music band Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand performed their hit Dream Big for sick kids and their families at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City. "For the first time in a while, my daughter was actually playing and singing and having fun instead of thinking about her legs," said Kersten Selt, whose daughter, Julie, 8, had corrective surgery on her legs on Tuesday. Said hospital interim director Bonnie Midget of the RubberBand's mini-concert: "It really is a wonderful thing they gave us. It was a great gift."

Naomi Judd read her new children's book, Gertie the Goldfish and the Christmas Surprise, at a story hour at the Williamson County Public Library in Franklin, Tenn. It was part of a book drive for the library. Claudia Wadzinski organized the event to highlight the need for books at the library, where usage has dramatically increased since a neighboring city library instituted a $50 annual usage fee to nonresidents.

Tyra Banks, syndicated talk show host, urged her audiences and staff in Los Angeles to donate professional attire and accessories to Dress for Success, a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged women enter the work force.

National Make A Difference Day Awards will be given to 10 selected volunteer efforts; each will share $100,000 donated by philanthropist and actor Paul Newman. The awards will be announced in USA WEEKEND in April 2006. All Make A Difference Day volunteers are eligible for the award and can enter at the website makeadifferenceday.com.

The next Make A Difference Day is Oct. 28, 2006.