National Volunteer Week, 2009

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Part V

The President

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Proclamation 8363--National Volunteer Week, 2009

Proclamation 8364--Earth Day, 2009

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 8363 of April 21, 2009

National Volunteer Week, 2009

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Our Nation's story begins with a call to volunteer.
Confronting the injustices of tyranny and small odds of
victory, patriots rallied one another to serve a cause
greater than themselves. As the beneficiaries of this
legacy, we possess an obligation to volunteer and serve
our fellow citizens with similar selflessness and
optimism.

Americans keep this proud tradition alive every day
across our country. They are protecting us in uniform,
feeding the hungry, tutoring children, comforting
seniors, and reaching out to veterans. They are
providing critical support to schools, shelters,
hospitals, and nursing homes, through faith-based and
community organizations, at home and abroad. Volunteers
change lives and strengthen our Nation and our world.

My Administration is committed to supporting and
supplementing the crucial efforts that Americans make
to volunteer. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act,
which I signed into law today, will help millions of
Americans of all ages to volunteer and to direct that
service towards meeting our most pressing challenges.
It truly will usher in a new era of service.

This landmark law recruits an army of 250,000 per year
to engage in intensive service, and it focuses that
work on today's challenges, including clean energy,
education, health, veterans care, and economic
opportunity. It creates new service opportunities for
seniors, baby boomers, and young adults, and improves
service learning in our schools.

The law also creates a Social Innovation Fund. This
fund looks for new ideas in communities and leverages
private, nonprofit, and faith-based support to invest
in local innovation. The fund also allows us to test
the impact of new ideas and expand successful programs
to scale.

Volunteering provides the opportunity to join and
better a community. Every American who volunteers can
become an integral part of a school, a hospital, or a
neighborhood. Those who give of their time also join
our Nation's proud history of service and help preserve
this tradition for generations ahead. During National
Volunteer Week, we express heartfelt thanks to all who
have worked hard in this effort, and we urge more
Americans to reach out and meet the manifold unmet
needs of fellow Americans.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim April 19-25, 2009 as
National Volunteer Week. I call upon all Americans to
join ongoing volunteer service efforts, and to create
new ones.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord two
thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.