It has been an amazing week that has demonstrated the power of people in action changing their communities, their world, and themselves in the process. On Tuesday, April 21, I had the great privilege of joining together with other service leaders and Congressional leaders for the Bill signing of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. It was an electric moment when President Obama walked out with Senator Kennedy and Bill Clinton to join Congressional Leaders on the stage. After 16 years, we have new authorizing bi-partisan legislation for service, and it is a transformational bill that calls for the largest expansion of service and civic action since FDR.

The day after the bill signing, we celebrated National Volunteer Week with two momentous events: The Extra Mile Induction Ceremony and the National Volunteer Week Reception. We inducted eight “service greats” that included John Muir the Founder of the Sierra Club and Wallace Campbell, Founder of CARE. Dr. Timothy P. Shriver, Chairman, Special Olympics, keynoted the ceremony with extraordinary inspiration and passion — helping us see this special monument and these change agents as examples that invite and beckon us to believe that anything is possible and to make the invisible injustices that society blindly accepts visible.

A special thank you to more than 300 national leaders, members of Congress and corporate, civic and community leaders who paid tribute to Senators Kennedy and Hatch. We had the pleasure of having Grammy Award winning artist Usher Raymond IV attend the National Volunteer Week Reception — a strong supporter of service and volunteerism for youth. Another round of thanks to our corporate partners: Chevron, The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Air Lines, GE, The Home Depot, SAP, Textron, Inc.

Also this week, in partnership with Nike Stores, we recognized 20 outstanding Athletes*Serve Gamechangers, youth between the ages of 13 – 25 who leveraged the power of sports as a tool for social change.

And in partnership with Scholastic, we launched the Be Big in Your Community Contest with everyone’s favorite Scholastic character, Clifford. Clifford visited five elementary schools across the country with our affiliates in Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia to get children excited about the Be Big! contest by engaging them in BIG thinking about how they would use Clifford’s Big Ideas to make their own community a better place.

Our four-year partnership with L’Oreal Paris also took on a new dimension this week as we aligned the nominations for the Women of Worth program to begin during National Volunteer Week and extend until July 13th. The program honors women whose service and dedication to volunteerism are making a difference in the world.

History has truly been made this week, but this is only the beginning. There is still so much more work to be done and it begins this weekend with service projects happening at our HandsOn affiliates across the country — including a 5,000 person Hands On New York Day (sponsored by HSBC) to restore green spaces and parks. With this new bi-partisan legislation inspiring a nation of people with a renewed call to service, we are excited to work together to fulfill the promise and hope of this week.

Yours in Service,

Michelle Nunn