Ideas for Mayors and Governors

If you decide to proclaim Oct. 28 Make A Difference Day, you might:

Hold a press conference and sign the proclamation in a neighborhood where Make A Difference Day projects have been planned. This could help publicize and kick off efforts for October 28 and demonstrate your commitment to community service.

Contact a Volunteer Center near you and offer to be involved in the projects they are planning. They may want you to give a speech at the kickoff of one of their major events, or they may simply ask you to work side by side with other volunteers, serving food, landscaping parks, painting schools, etc. Your involvement would present excellent opportunities for media recognition of volunteer efforts.

Take your family and friends to a soup kitchen or shelter on Make A Difference Day to do community service, showing that you are willing to physically and personally tackle problems in your community.

Assign a community-wide coordinator to organize grass-roots action in cooperation with your local Volunteer Center.

Identify a special problem challenging your community -- homelessness, flood damage, child care -- and urge your citizens to tackle that problem on Make A Difference Day.

Use Make A Difference Day as a way to initiate action on a major community concern or issue.

Tell the local paper that carries USA WEEKEND and is a local co-sponsor of Make A Difference Day that you back this day of community service and let them know that you will participate in projects on Oct. 28.

Sample Proclamation Text

WHEREAS, serious social problems concern our nation and threaten its future; and

WHEREAS, connecting with others and working together through volunteer service can bridge the differences that separate people and help solve serious social problems; and

WHEREAS, we, the American people, have a tradition of philanthropy and volunteerism; and

WHEREAS, millions of self-sacrificing individuals touched and enhanced the lives of millions on the tenth Make A Difference Day of doing good by giving where there was a need, rebuilding what had been torn down, teaching where there was a desire to learn and inspiring those who had lost hope; and

WHEREAS, USA WEEKEND Magazine and its affiliate newspapers and The Points of Light Foundation and its affiliate volunteer centers have joined to promote an annual national day of doing good that celebrates and strengthens the spirit of volunteer service; and

WHEREAS, volunteer service is an investment in the future we all must share;

NOW, THEREFORE, I [NAME/TITLE] do hereby proclaim Oct. 28, 2006, as Make A Difference Day in [CITY/STATE], and urge my fellow citizens to observe this day by connecting with friends, fellow employees and relatives and with religious, school and civic groups to engage in projects benefiting their community.

Signed this [Date] day of [Month], [Year]