Category Archives: Summit ’08

09.12.08
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Service Nation on Friday morning

John Bridgeland, President and CEO of Civic Enterprises kicks off the “party around service” with an enthusiastic crowd. Thanks leaders and organizers et al by name.

Film tribute to those whose lives were personally affected by the tragic events of Sept. 11th, 2001, created by the National September 11th Memorial and Museum.

National anthem! Melinda Doolittle from American Idol Season Six. BIG soft spot in my heart for Melinda Doolittle.

Vartan Gregorian, Service Nation Co-chair and President of the Carnegie Corporation speaks.  Giving is part of our culture. Low income families give four percent of income to charities. Three-quarters of Americans give an average of $1800. annually.  Democracy is not a spectator sport, we have to work to make it a success, we should praise people who serve as elected officials. Benefits of our society oblige us to return the favor. “It’s in giving that we receive” – St. Francis. Become a true citizen through giving. “Live out our passions lest we be judged as not having lived at all” (missed who the paraphrased quotation is from).

Laurie Tisch of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund introduced NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Mayor Bloomberg speaks. “When you talk about volunteerism, America needs us,” including military service members who are putting their life on the line for us. We are the beneficiaries of their service. Their families suffer the loss. Service can respond to issues such as global warming. In NY they are planting a million trees. Converting city government, schools, own home to CFL bulbs.

First Lady Laura Bush speaks. Talks about engaging older adults volunteering by mentoring and tutoring youth. Cites examples of national service participants. “We can build an America with 100 million volunteers.” (I apologize for the brief paragraph but I inadvertently missed the first part of her talk. See the text from the White House Press Office. )

Hearing from representatives of different programs:

City Year Philadelphia alum Leon McClain speaks about regretful choices he made to give into peer pressure, and ended up with two bullets in his leg, but turned his life around when he joined City Year. Talks about a student Ray he worked with and the feeling of satisfaction he gets from knowing he made a difference.

Walter Atwood, alum of original Civilian Conservation Corps, upon which AmeriCorps*NCCC is based.

Antonio Ramirez, Youthbuild alum, crediting AmeriCorps with helping him become his family’s first Associates of Arts (AA) degree holder. Has an infant daughter, and he’s proud to be able to create a good future for her and his family.

Brianna O’Brien, Hands On Network staff who served in New Orleans after Katrina.

Carolyn Kennedy (daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy) introduced Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Kennedy’s uncle Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Hatch have worked together on issues for a long time in the Senate together.

Hatch officially announced the bill this morning at the Service Nation Summit and spoke touchingly of his work with Kennedy across the aisle. The senators have worked together for a long time and Hatch’s affection for his friend was obvious and endearing. (Kennedy was convalescing at home.)

In a statement that drew enthusiastic applause, Hatch announced that both Senators McCain and Obama have signed on to co-sponsor the legislation! To the bi-partisan crowd, all supporters of national service, the support of both Presidential candidates means a lot. Hopes are high for national service and the next administration. Other co-sponsors include Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), and RPCV Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).

In an interview with Hatch after his speech, he addressed a question about the cost to government of national service. The bill, he said, “should please those who are concerned about cost.” He cited the relatively low cost of supporting trained volunteers compared to the cost of allowing high schoolers to drop out, and ignoring young people who have lost their role models to prison and worse fates. Further, according to Hatch, elevating these youth, educating them, and connecting them with job skills will serve the economy well, as will the creation of jobs, including in the energy industry.

After the morning line up of speakers, the gathering broke into panel discussions. See the schedule here.

See Change/Wire (the Service Nation blog) for notes on the Lunch. Follow RocchiJulia on Twitter for tweets.

09.11.08
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Forum’s starting!

Watch it here!

See photo of Columbia students watching on the lawn.

Read this article from Chronicle of Philanthropy about Presidential candidates, public service, and philanthropy.

Notes from the Forum:

Gov. David Patterson announced he would elevate the position of the state commission on voluntary action and service to a cabinet level post.

Liz Alderman and Jay Winnick (sp?) — relatives of people who died on 9/11 spoke.

John McCain is up! Judy Woodruff and Rick Stengel interviewing him on stage in arm chairs. McCain is pleased with the volunteer effort in the United States, and is “all for” making it easier. If companies want to offer paid leave for service he says okay, but he won’t force them to. Says military service was part of his family’s tradition. Grateful that his country saved him, so he owes his country. Private sector should expand its own service opportunities, instead of relying on the government to expand its opportunities. Community service of anyone is admirable.

Obama now! Nation yearns to serve, and government should tap into that desire. Kids should connect to service opportunities early to develop citizenship. Support more military ranks, better military pay, and keep the GI Bill alive. “Lift up” opportunities to serve without partisan politics. Says young people yearn to serve and should be supported through civic education and opportunities to serve in youth. Change happens from the bottom up: we roll up our sleeves and create positive change. JFK answered the idealism of his time by creating Peace Corps, and Clinton by creating AmeriCorps.

09.11.08
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Service Nation Approved Bloggers List

(Update 9/20/08, see this post from Henri Makembe’s blog for more bloggers.)

My first official media team volunteer duty at the Service Nation Summit (okay, after schlepping some boxes and touring the primary event spaces for tonight and tomorrow) is checking in the Be the Change, Inc. approved bloggers for the Forum tonight.

I may blog some as I am able, but in case you want to follow events, I will update the list of bloggers as they check in. Note: not 100% of bloggers checked in with me — others may be blogging not on this list. Doesn’t mean they are unauthorized.

Kate from Be the Change, Inc. is here: Change/ Wire. Follow BetheChangeInc on Twitter, and follow Kate, rightplace.

Britt Bravo is here: Blogher.com and Have Fun – Do Good. You can follow Britt on Twitter. You can also follow Britt-inspired Changeblogs on Twitter.

Alison Fine arrived: afine.us and afine on Twitter.

Liza Sabater checked in: Awearness, and blogdiva on Twitter.

Christina Kerley got in: She blogs at CK’s Blog and Spare Change. ckEpiphany on Twitter.

Roger Carr just walked in! Everyday Giving, and rogercarr on Twitter.

Columbia Graduate School of Journalism students are blogging at Obama and McCain at Columbia. Follow them on Twitter: J_School.

Lara Galinsky just arrived! Spark*Blog on Echoing Green. Friday Echoing Green will be updating on Twitter.

Alan Wolk! Blogging at Toadstool, and Tweeting at awolk.

The FLiP team arrived: Divine Tabios, Elisabeth Anderson, and Daniel Blaine. They are not tweeting!

RocchiJulia is tweeting! She will blog at Social Citizens.

Ray Skwire is here. Will blog tomorrow about tonight at PhillyBits.

And Friday morning I am seeing (in addition to those above):

Daniel Parr from Conservation Nation! Not tweeting.

I am again tweeting from AmyPotthast!

09.11.08
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Sept. 10th, 2001

On September 10th, 2001, I was in New York City visiting my b.f.f. who still lives in Brooklyn, and a cousin who was a student at Sarah Lawrence. Sometime in the afternoon I took a bus over to the Newark International Airport to board an Air Canada flight to Toronto, where I’d catch another flight to Vancouver, and finally onto Hong Kong. I was on my way back to China where I had served as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1998-2000. On Sept. 10, 2001, I was 28 years old.

My flight out of Newark was delayed — something about a fire in the control tower? On the flight were lots of New York filmmakers on the way to a film festival. I spent that night in the Toronto airport, and boarded an early morning flight to Vancouver, on Sept. 11.

That flight never made it. We were grounded in Calgary, due to a “national emergency in the United States,” the pilot told us. The flight attendants had no more information for us. I racked my brain for the last time I had heard that term “national emergency.”

When we landed, someone a few rows behind me who was technologically advanced had a cell phone and used it to get word that there were hijackings…and a plane that was flown into a World Trade Center tower…

All day I wandered around the airport in Calgary, and alternately camped out at a payphone, calling friends and family all over the country and picking up tidbits of news.  (If there was a t.v. to watch I didn’t know about it.) It was my cousin Johnny who spelled out the whole terrible truth of the hijacked planes flying into the towers, the emergency workers, the collapse. I couldn’t get in touch with my b.f.f. or my Sarah Lawrence cousin.

By afternoon I felt like a ghost. I was waiting for the go-ahead to board my flight continuing onto Vancouver, but instead the airport was emptying. The only people left were workers and a few other befuddled passengers sitting in a lounge. I went by the little airport chapel where I had taken part in a prayer service earlier in the day when someone made it crystal clear that not only would I not fly out that night, but that flights might be grounded for days.

What?

So I inquired about lodging options.

A man pulled out a legal pad filled, row by row, with names and phone numbers of local people who had called in responding to an alert on t.v., to offer to house airport orphans stranded by the attacks in New York and Pennsylvania thousands of miles away. Pages of names, every row filled.

He called the first name on the list and within an hour I was driving home with the nicest family I had ever met, who housed me, fed me, and showed me all the China-related cultural and culinary offerings of their great city. For three days! The mom of the family even sewed up a torn pair of pants I had. She offered!

When I told my family about the experience my aunt said that no matter how horrific the people who planned the attacks, times like this remind us of just how deep is the good in everyone else.

On the 7th anniversary of the attacks I am back in New York — last night for the graduate admissions event for Idealist.org and today for the Service Nation Summit. I am so excited about today, about all the people I will meet, and the ideas and practices that will emerge. I feel honored to get to be here for this reason, and am sure I will cry tonight at Columbia University, listening to our future president speak to a crowd including 9/11 families and military service members. And I will be thinking about that family in Calgary who stepped up to help me, and their spirit of selfless neighborliness. At the core, that is what the spirit of national and international and community service strives to enable, ways for all of us to connect and give to our traditional and global neighbors.