Get Publicity: Sample Speech

Each year on the fourth Saturday in October, millions of Americans commit time, effort and expertise to make a difference in our communities across the nation. That day is called Make A Difference Day and it takes place this year on October [insert date]. As a Make A Difference Day volunteer coordinator, I'm often asked, "How much difference can one person make, on one day of the year?" Well, pause a minute and imagine the impact of these projects:

• In Toronto, Ohio, a 15-year-old paperboy used his route to collect donations from his customers. The collection netted 500 bags of clothing and other items for the disadvantaged.
  
• In Sale City, Georgia, the home of a struggling single mom had fallen into disrepair after she lost her sight to glaucoma. To help, one 17-year-old boy inspired 30 people to paint and repair her house in a floor-to-ceiling fix-up.
  
• In Stuart, Florida, a clinic offered free mammograms, which detected abnormalities in two women, possibly saving their lives.
  
• In New York City, public housing residents saw beyond their own needs and reached out to cheer the elderly at a nursing home and entertain sick kids at a hospital pediatric ward.
  
• In Santa Rosa, California, Kids One Inc., a nonprofit organization working to prevent child abuse and abduction, gave 50,000 families free child-safety kits.
  
• In Vernon, New Jersey, high school students started a one-day soup kitchen to prove their area needed a permanent way to feed the poor. As a result of the students' action, a permanent soup kitchen is opening.
  
• [Insert a Make A Difference Day project your community accomplished or is planning.] All across America, millions of citizens prove their power when they work side by side for a good cause. Millions of lives are touched. Make A Difference Day is not just another day. Make A Difference Day, created by USA WEEKEND magazine and held in partnership with The Points of Light Foundation, is our call to action. We know all too well the problems that plague our society. We know the perils that children face today. Drugs, gangs, broken homes, illiteracy and other ills threaten the nation's future.[Insert realities facing your audience.]

I'm here to propose a solution. We are the solution! Make A Difference Day is part of the solution! We can use the power we possess to make changes. On Saturday, October [insert date], we can rebuild, reinvent and revitalize homes, communities, schools, places of worship, businesses, organizations and attitudes.

One day. It's amazing how much we can accomplish in just one day. And once you get going, you may want to keep making a difference all year round. Make A Difference Day is the perfect introduction to the enormously satisfying world of helping others.

Start with a one-day investment in the future we all share. Many of us have been fortunate in our lives, and Make A Difference Day is a fine opportunity to stand together to give something back: to rebuild what has been torn down ... to contribute where funds have been depleted ... to teach where someone wants to learn ... and to provide inspiration to those who have lost hope.

Here's a chance for each of us to take a good look around and find something we can do to make life better for someone else. There are plenty of ways to get involved and there's a wide range of possible projects. Join in a community face lift and clean a park. Take part in a fund-raising concert, garage sale or walk-a-thon. Teach someone to read. Or bring toys to a homeless shelter.

And once you do something to help others on Make A Difference Day, your cause is eligible for a charitable award! More than $100,000 will be distributed to charities around the country in awards of $10,000. These awards are donated by Paul Newman and his food company Newman's Own.

Your action might spark a charitable donation that helps continue one day's good work far, far into the future. You can be one of the people who truly make a difference.

Thank you.

Quotes you may want to use

"I can't think of a better task for my generation. We received so much from our own parents. It is only appropriate that we give back in kind."
-- Gen. Colin Powell

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
-- Margaret Mead, anthropologist

"This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in."
-- Theodore Roosevelt, former U.S. president

"How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment before starting to change the world."
-- Anne Frank, "The Diary of a Young Girl"

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else."
-- Booker T. Washington, educator and author

"Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. ... You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do."
-- Edmund Everett Hale, writer

"Much of the work of America cannot be done by government; much other work cannot be done by government alone. The solution must be the American people through voluntary service to others."
-- President Bill Clinton