Clinton Urges Americans To Help Others

Trying to generate “a new season of service,” President Clinton designated a National Service Week and said Saturday that he hoped more than 1 million Americans would participate at food banks, shelters and playgrounds.

“As I’ve said many times, the era of big government may be over, but the era of big challenges for our nation is surely not,” Clinton said in his weekly radio address.

“It is the very American idea that we can meet our challenges, not through heavy-handed government or as isolated individuals, but as members of a true community - all of us working together.”

Surrounded by AmeriCorps and Peace Corps volunteers in the Oval Office, the president announced he was setting aside April 13-19 to promote volunteerism.

Some 3,000 community service projects involving more than 1 million Americans were being planned for that week - meant to create excitement for the presidential summit on national service set to begin April 29 in Philadelphia.

President Bush, President Ford, retired Army Gen. Colin Powell, Nancy Reagan and representatives of other former presidents will participate in the three-day summit, which was first announced in January.

Suzanne Cooper from Morristown, N.J., one of several volunteers invited to Clinton’s address, hoped especially to draw youngsters to the home building, food bank and community garden projects she was spearheading for mid-April.

“We need to inculcate the ethic of service starting with young children.”

The service projects are organized by the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps - Clinton’s pet program to help students pay off school loans with community service.