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 Make A Difference Day

    USA WEEKEND proudly sponsors Make A Difference Day with HandsOn Network. Newman’s Own is a longtime supporter.

    Make A Difference Day is the most encompassing national day of helping others. Held annually on the fourth Saturday of October, millions of Americans are rallied into a single day of action to help change the world.

    Complete details about the day, as well as tools to help you make a difference in your community are available at makeadifferenceday.com.

    • MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY /

    9 projects. $10,000 donation. Your vote decides the winner!

    Cast your vote for the Make A Difference Day All-Star Award today. The nominees range from ages 9 to 99 and their stories of service are inspirational.

    • Feb. 17, 2012
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    All-Star nominees announced!

    Check out nine projects nominated for the All-Star Award, and pick your favorite starting Wednesday, February 15. The winner receives a $10,000 charitable donation from USA WEEKEND and the Gannett Foundation.

    • Feb. 10, 2012
  1. A Haitian child from the town of Jeremie caring for the goat that his family was given as part of a program run by the Haitian Health Foundation. Haitian Health Foundation

    One way to help Haiti: Get a goat

    Can a goat help Haiti, two years after a devastating earthquake? Catherine Russi has high hopes for hers.

    • Jan. 6, 2012
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  2. Diane Cornelius of Lexington, KY is collecting wedding dresses for brides in Haiti. She brings donated wedding gowns to Haiti and holds mass weddings and sets them up with a bridal-dress-rental business, to not only lift women's spirits but help them increase their status and economic situation. Jonathan Palmer/USA TODAY

    Diane Cornelius brings the joy of weddings to Haiti

    In a medical clinic in Haiti, 19 wedding dresses hang from shelves and IV poles. Diane Cornelius, a bridal store owner from Lexington, Ky., is helping to outfit brides for two group weddings to be held that week.

    • Nov. 23, 2011
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     Toby Jorrin for USA WEEKEND

    Share the good you did!

    It's time to look back on all the good we did on Make A Difference Day! Plus, take a look at the next steps for being considered for national recognition and prizes.

    • Oct. 20, 2011
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    USA WEEKEND Make a Difference Day volunteers paint a wall as part of the project at J.C. Nalle Elementary School in Washington, DC. Toby Jorrin for USA WEEKEND

    Millions help others on national Make A Difference Day

    Across the country, in big and small ways, millions volunteered to make a difference in their community. Join us in celebrating all the good!

    • Oct. 22, 2011
    • MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY /

    Are you ready to make a difference?

    Millions of people will volunteer in communities around the country on Saturday -- Make A Difference Day. Projects registered in the DAYtaBANK are eligible to enter for national recognition and win $10,000 for your favorite charity. All the details you need to get involved are on makeadifferenceday.com.

    • Oct. 14, 2011
  3. Brian Williams is anchor and managing editor of 'NBC Nightly News' and 'Rock Center.' David Yellen/USA WEEKEND

    Spread the News

    Anchor and managing editor of 'NBC Nightly News' and 'Rock Center,' Brian Williams hopes the news about Make A Difference Day will spread like wildfire.

    • Oct. 13, 2011
  4. HandsOn Network volunteers complete a community revitalization project. HandsOn Network

    Get a taste of what's happening across America on Make A Difference Day

    Across the nation, millions of Americans are clearing their calendars to make way for USA WEEKEND Magazine's Make A Difference Day next Saturday. Corporations, kids and communities are joining the action on the nation's largest day of volunteering.

    • Oct. 13, 2011
  5. Matt Lauer hosts an annual charity golf event for the Florida hospice that cared for his dad. JaredÊA.ÊGab/Palm Beach Daily News

    Today’s Matt Lauer keeps paying it forward every year.

    One of the lessons my wife and I try to teach our kids is that giving back is not something you do just at the surface level. It's something you should really dive into, with consistency and follow-up.

    • Oct. 6, 2011
  6. Ann Curry reports on refugees in Chad in February 2009. Mike Turner/NBC NEWS

    Ann Curry shares a valuable lesson from her dad.

    When I was about 10 or 11 years old, my father told me something that has always stayed with me...

    • Oct. 6, 2011
  7. Natalie Morales with her fellow runners at a "Back on My Feet" race event in Philadelphia. Back on My Feet

    Natalie Morales finds volunteering uplifting

    As a runner, I believe strongly in the physical and emotional benefits of the sport. That's why I serve on the National Board of Directors of Back on My Feet, an organization that empowers homeless people to turn their lives around through running.

    • Sep. 29, 2011
  8. Al Roker visited the Iowa Homeless Youth center in Des Moines and delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods to the charity. Megan Kopf/NBC

    Al Roker finds the possibilities mind-boggling

    Ten years ago, I went through one of the worst experiences anyone can endure: watching my father die of lung cancer.

    • Sep. 29, 2011
    • MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY /
    To learn more and apply for a Prudential Spirit of Community Award, visit <a href="http://spirit.prudential.com/">spirit.prudential.com</a>.

    The Prudential Spirit of Community Award winners get into the act.

    Each year hundreds of young people are recognized by Prudential with their Spirit of Community Awards for volunteer service. Many of the 2011 winners plan to join the millions of Americans volunteering on Make A Difference Day this Oct. 22. Among them: Rocco Fiorentino, 14, of Vorhees, N.J., who managed to have October declared Blindness Awareness Month in 36 states. Fiorentino will be helping people, who, like himself, are visually impaired by repairing canes at a Philadelphia hospital.

    • Oct. 4, 2011
  9. David Gregory and mentee Steve Cherenfant lean on each other for support. Gary Landsman

    David Gregory of Meet The Press goes one-on-one to mentor a new friend.

    My job has given me a very public platform that allows me to meet and interact with incredible people all over the world.

    • Sep. 22, 2011
  10. NBC News Television correspondent Harry Smith NBC News

    Harry Smith sees the value of volunteering

    Every week, I look forward to the moment when my wife, NBC sportscaster Andrea Joyce, comes home from taking our Golden Doodle, Reggie, to visit the Ronald McDonald House affiliated with the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

    • Sep. 15, 2011
  11. Kate Snow, Correspondent for Dateline NBC Virginia Sherwood/NBC News

    Kate Snow teaches the importance of paying it forward

    My job often takes me to places where people are in great need. Whenever I go anywhere there's suffering, I always take my camera with me and take a lot of photos, in part so I can show them to my kids.

    • Sep. 15, 2011
    • MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY /
    Lester Holt spent last Thanksgiving with troops in Afghanistan. NBC News

    'Our differences melted away'

    If I allow myself to dwell on 9/11 for more than a few minutes, I tear up and become very emotional. Ten years later, it is still a raw wound.

    • Sep. 9, 2011
  12. Bill and Melinda Gates, photographed at the Gates' offices in Kirkland, WA. USA WEEKEND/Brian Smale

    How every American can give: An exclusive interview with Bill and Melinda Gates

    First, Bill Gates dedicated his life to revolutionizing technology. Then, the richest man in the world decided to give half his fortune away to improve education and combat poverty and disease.

    • Jul. 21, 2011
  13. USA Weekend Magazine Hannah Salwen, Founder of "The Power of Half" photographed with her brother Joseph, and parents Joan and Kevin Salwen in Kirkland, WA for USA Weekend Magazine. Brian Smale/USA WEEKEND

    How one American family gave half its money away

    Hannah Salwen's parents had already been giving back. Or so they thought. Hannah's mother, Joan, volunteered at the local United Way, and her entrepreneur father, Kevin, sat on the board of Habitat for Humanity.

    • Jul. 21, 2011
    • MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY /
    Register your project today and be sure to come back to report your success. You could win!

    Your good deed could get you a great prize!

    The Make A Difference Day DAYtaBANK is now open for projects. Entering has never been easier or so useful! Once you put your project in the DAYtaBANK, you can share your plans on social media and recruit your community into action. Come back to the

    • Jul. 7, 2011
    • MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY /
    Cokie Roberts and Darius Rucker joined the celebration for Make A Difference Day Award Honorees. Toby Jorrin for USA WEEKEND

    Make A Difference Day standouts honored in Washington, D.C. Honorees were chosen from among millions.

    Members of Congress, journalist Cokie Roberts and singer Darius Rucker were on hand to salute USA WEEKEND Magazine's 2011 Make A Difference Day Award Honorees at a luncheon on Capitol Hill in April.

    • May. 26, 2011
  14. Rucker with Linda Wieck, who sews special quilts for deployed troops

    Darius Rucker and the gift of giving

    Want a boost? Read these special stories of everyday people who make the world a better. Introduced by singer Darius Rucker. Linda Wieck, right, does her part by sewing special quilts for deployed troops.

    • Apr. 7, 2011
    • MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY /

    Make A Difference Day: Celebrating the nation's volunteers

    USA WEEKEND's Make A Difference Day is the nation's largest day of service. Last Oct. 23 — the 20th Make A Difference Day — more than 3 million Americans volunteered to help an estimated 20 million people in need of food, clothing, shelter, care and love.

    • Apr. 7, 2011
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    Meet our 2011 Make A Difference Day winners

    Here's a tip: When visiting Joanne Marcil's home, watch your stuff. Just ask her husband, Ray, who left a jacket lying around. Joanne grabbed it and sold it at her community's Make A Difference Day flea market. When Ray later asked her about it, she just smiled.

    • Apr. 7, 2011
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    Our Encore Award goes to the 'Apple Capital'

    Wenatchee bills itself as the "Apple Capital of the World," but a generation of residents might also know it as the Make A Difference Day capital. The region's 1,000-volunteer effort in 1992 earned it our first national award. And residents have been inspired to do good ever since.

    • Apr. 7, 2011
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    Park cleaning in Trenton, Ohio. John Jones

    Cities with heart

    USA WEEKEND, in partnership with the Corporation for National & Community Service and Newman's Own, announces the new Make A Difference City Award, which recognizes the volunteer efforts of three cities. Each also receives a $10,000 donation from Newman's Own to the charity of their choice. Meet this year's winners:

    • Apr. 7, 2011
POWERED BY USA WEEKEND Magazine & more than 800 Local Newspapers across the country!

Make A Difference Day, the largest national day of helping
others, is sponsored annually by USA WEEKEND Magazine
and its 800 carrier newspapers. Make A Difference Day
takes place on the 4th Saturday in October each year.



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