 Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the executive director of the Presidio Trust and our host sponsor, Craig Middleton. You guys look beautiful out there. Colors, blue, red, white, green, gray. You just look terrific. I want to welcome you on behalf of the Presidio Trust and our esteemed chairman, Nancy Bechtel over here and our former, in fact, founding chairman, Toby Rosenblatt over here of the Presidio Trust. I want to all welcome you to the Presidio today. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Governor Brown, for being here today. We're very honored to have you. And thanks to all of you for your service to our communities and your service to our country. Thank you to Karen Baker, our Chief Service Officer of the State of California. Give her a round of applause. And thank you to all the staff people, Karen staff, everybody who has worked here so hard over the last few days to make this event possible. You deserve a round of applause as well. Thank you. Particularly pleased to welcome you to the Presidio because for 238 years, the Presidio has been a place of service. It has stood for something. It has been a place of service to something greater than oneself. Service is the thread that ties all of the generations of the Presidio together through three different nations and a number of different communities all tied together through this idea of serving something greater than oneself. No one can claim to this idea of service, this ideal of service that you're all here to celebrate today. It is an enduring idea. It's something that's made manifest every day by the work that you do. So I am really proud of AmeriCorps. Thank you, AmeriCorps. I'm really proud of what you've done here at the Presidio and I'm really proud of what you've done in the Bay Area and in the state and in the country. You are terrific. You are awesome. Thank you so much. So service is the Presidio's cultural legacy. Service is our grand tradition here. So we are so honored to have all of you here today to celebrate yourselves, celebrate 20 years, celebrate service, celebrate that whole ideal. Give yourselves another hand. And when we raise the flag, think of it as a salute to all of you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Oakland Military Institute for the Raising of the Flag and Natalia Loken for the singing of our national anthem. Please welcome the Chief Service Officer for the State of California, Karen Baker. Well, good morning. Well, there is absolutely nothing more inspiring to me than seeing a sea of AmeriCorps members passionate about getting to work in their communities. Am I right? Governor, just so you know, we have over 1,000 AmeriCorps members here today. But they are only one-tenth of the Californians who are going to work this year alone. That's mind-boggling. There's 10,000 of you each year that are going out and serving in California communities. We are here to celebrate the past 20 years of our work to swear in these men and women and to hear about what's to come. But none of this today would have been possible without the support that we've received. I want to thank the Corporation for National and Community Service, our federal funder, AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. Let's hear it. Go in. Triple C. Our funder, Bank of America, is the number one investor of service initiatives in California. And Janet Lampkin is an amazing leader who really needs to hear your gratitude. AT&T. Kathy McKim is not only a supporter. She is our 20th event chair. And I'd like to thank both Kathy and her vice chair, Clara Chu, for their efforts about making today such a special one. If they could please stand. The Presidio Trust which has provided us with this beautiful campus at the Presidio Institute where we will be celebrating and conducting over 42 service projects today. In the areas of education, the environment, we're going to be building drought tool kits and sending them to Central California. We're going to be building homeless veteran comfort kits. And I really also want to thank Secretary Peter Gravitt from CDVA who is here today joining us for that project. Peter, if you could stand. I will say none of those projects would have been possible unless HP was behind us, Blue Shield of California, Bank of America, and Kaiser Permanente. Thank you all to our service day project sponsors. Erin Mark, Deloitte, you're always there with your sponsorship support. Thank you. And then we have these companies who they get volunteerism. They gave pro bono, amazing services, a special thank you to three fold communications and trapeze who did a beautiful job on the video you'll be seeing. Volunteer match that got you all connected to the service projects you're going to be doing. And Home Depot who provided not only today's drought tool kit supplies, but a total of over 300,000 tool kits that are going to be assembled in the state. Thank you to all of our pro bono sponsors. You know, events like this just don't happen without a lot of hard work. We got to thank that 20th anniversary committee. If you could wave your hands. Thank you. And of course, we have the best and most amazing California Volunteers Commission appointed by the governor. If you could please stand. These guys are working it year round to promote service. Thank you so much. We have about 42 nonprofits and public entities that are our partners. Could they please stand. These are the folks, the executive directors, the individuals who run programs. Yeah, they're kind of shy. They're like, yeah, I need you to stand. And the last shout out is to the 20 service trailblazers earlier today at a beautiful breakfast hosted by AT&T. We really celebrated the 20 people that helped create and shape and support service here in our state. They're in that poster that you have as part of your program. We don't like to waste paper, but we gave you a little poster. That's a history lesson, and they tell you the legacy and the role that they played if they could please stand. An outstanding group of individuals. Now earlier today, there was another swearing in on the east coast in a little house that's painted white. There was apparently some important people present in the United States. You know, Bill Clinton and some other very impressive guests, but they didn't have who we have. We have the founder of the modern service movement, California Governor Jerry Brown is in the house. We have him. They don't have him. And we have him all the time. It's so wonderful. You know, I hope you take a moment today to look at these impact pillars. At the base of these pillars, you will be able to see some snapshots of just what's gotten done in the four areas of impact where we do our work. You know, when you can help over 4,000 vets in just one year of service, you're doing something amazing. When you can tutor over 10,000 children so that they graduate on time, you're doing something right. When you can plant trees and do the critical conservation work our state needs, you're making a difference. And when you have over five applicants on average for every AmeriCorps position, you're creating a service opportunity that people are so hungry for. So let's talk about the future. You ready? I said, are you ready? Okay. We're going to grow service in California. We need to ensure that more people who want to do more and who want to serve can do so. We need the resolve that growing our civic force here in California, people who want to make this place a better place, you know, is something that we're willing to invest in. Our one very exciting step in this direction is a brand new commitment that I just have to let you know about that AT&T has made. They have come up with a coding challenge. We are going to connect the over 116,000 AmeriCorps alums that are out there, if you can believe it, okay? In our state so that they can continue to work together on the issues that they care about and help us grow this service movement. Let's hear it for AT&T. We will continue to lead the nation in service where the number one state in service will continue to be the number one. Today is just one of many steps we're going to take to make the Golden State shine even brighter. Thank you so much for all that you do. Service is a calling, often rising or starting from a single and simple beat. It moves you to do something, to connect, to serve others, to have an impact on your community. The rhythm of service changes us for the better. It becomes a movement and by working together side by side we can all make a difference. Do you hear the drumbeat? Today is a huge day in our history. We're here today to celebrate the foundation that we were built upon and thanks to Governor Brown who started the California Conservation Corps. You have AmeriCorps that was started 20 years ago. There were a lot of visionary people who had an idea to work with states and local organizations in a whole different way. And we created AmeriCorps which is an amazing avenue for communities to be able to get involved in serving on the issues that they care about. In the healthcare arena, in human needs, in the education arena, in the environment and also public safety. AmeriCorps is a key strategy that helps mayors engage their citizens in solving our city's toughest problems. Service is critical to the strength of our communities, meeting community needs, transforming lives. Today we're also honoring 20 service trailblazers. These are the people that created, supported, shaped everything that we are throughout California over the last 20 years. Trailblazer really means charting new territory, trying new things, being willing to innovate, being willing to keep trying. When I think of trailblazer, I think of somebody out there beating the path. Service to others no matter what the conditions. Not only giving back to the community but becoming stronger leaders themselves. It's really been just an honor to be part of this movement. I think what we're seeing in communities throughout California is obviously really challenging times, especially for our local governments as they really struggle with meeting the needs of their community. Government can't do it alone. We need the private sector, the public sector to invest together. More companies need to understand. We need them involved. Communities are ready for the solutions. We've got great strong nonprofits that are ready to host more AmeriCorps members. We have the people lining up five applications for every position. There's virtually an endless amount of important conservation work to do, so we need to get everyone involved. Partners working together are stronger, but the most important piece is the future and looking toward what's next. At AT&T we're all about innovation. The coding challenge is an online competition where we will have someone invent an application that will connect almost 100,000 AmeriCorps alumni across California. Imagine the possibilities if we're all connected and we can grow the service movement together. It's really exciting to think about just what we could tackle, what issues we could make a difference in if we put AmeriCorps to work. If we had the resources we needed, we could change the world. And 1,000 new people being sworn in is an amazing accomplishment. We are so thrilled about this moment. We've got people here today, some for their very first day as a part of AmeriCorps who are going to be sworn in. I think it takes a very special kind of person to want to serve their community. Our generation is excited about helping people. Young people are able to contribute to this environment that they're going to inherit. They don't get paid a lot. It's a tough job. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Invest, mentor, empower, engage, feel, act, connect, create, serve, get involved, and just go out there and make the biggest difference you possibly can. Please welcome California Volunteers Commission Chair Rita Holliday. Our next speaker burst onto the movie landscape with his role as Richie Valence in La Bamba. He appeared in notable films such as Stand and Deliver, Courage Under Fire, and has played the role of the critically acclaimed A&E series, Longmire, since 2012. More importantly, he has been an active in many social and humanitarian causes within the Filipino-American and Native American communities, and in 1993 received the Oxfam American Award for his dedication toward ending world hunger. Ladies and gentlemen, and be still my heart, please give a warm welcome to actor, activist, humanitarian, and philanthropist, Mr. L- Wow, thank you Rita. I gotta follow that. Good morning. It is absolutely an honor to be here with America Core this morning. It's so great to look out at all these beautiful smiling faces. I'm assuming that's because you're all here voluntarily. These are the jokes, folks. These are the jokes. I'll take groans. It's okay. I don't mind. Real quick, I'd like to make a quick shout out to my dear friend Ted Benito who brought me here today. Karen, thank you so much for having me. I am also this year's national spokesperson for the veterans of foreign wars. I always want to shout out to my brothers and sisters in the military and in uniform. When you talk about service, these are young men and women who answered the call of duty and put themselves in harm's way to protect our way of life, so I always remember them. I am incredibly proud to look out and see the diversity in this crowd today. It kind of reminds me not only of my film career, but certainly my career in the service sector. I've always kind of lived by the UPS motto, what can Brown do for you? Governor, you're more than welcome to use that, but you might want to check with UPS. They might sue you. It is my belief in this country, in this society, that there is a pendulum that measures public interest in issues other than their own immediate needs. Now, that pendulum swings from apathy to action, and in the middle there is complacency. Obviously, we do not want apathy or complacency. What we need is action. I look out at this group today and I am heartened. You give me hope because I think the pendulum is on an upswing. We are taking action. We are making a difference in our communities. Every single one of you is representative of your individual community and the overall community of America and the world. You are a beacon of light. You are an inspiration. You are leading by example, and your example is contagious. I salute you today and I'm extremely proud of you. I've done a lot of work with Native American communities. As Rita said, I was just adopted into the Cheyenne Nation on the lame-deer reservation in Montana. I'm very proud of that. One of my longtime friends, Thomas Onewolf, has a saying. He used to call celebrities, because for some reason people listen to us. I don't know why. But he used to call us thunder voices, because what we said would go far beyond the horizon, far beyond our own sphere of influence and touch the lives of people we would never meet. And so we must be careful about what comes out of our mouths. You are thunder voices, those of you today who are starting your career with AmeriCorps. What you do and what you say, your actions will go beyond the horizon. They will touch and change the lives of people you may never meet. But you are creating this karma. You are creating this goodwill throughout the universe that will continue and will grow and will make a difference in this world and our country. And once again, I'm incredibly proud of you and I salute you. I used to be a young gun. With over 116,000 AmeriCorps members having served in California, it is difficult to pick just one person to tell their story. However, in the case of our next speaker, she is someone whose story tells us the full circle benefit of national service. It is my privilege to introduce to you Angela De Los Santos, an inspirational AmeriCorps alum member with a compelling story. Good morning. From as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to help others. Being an only child growing up, I was eager to have lots of children on my own, and now I'm a proud mother of six. At one point in my life, my children and I ended up homeless having to sleep on the streets. That was tough and things got pretty tough sometimes. One day I was approached by an outreach worker who offered me a transitional housing opportunity at the Midnight Missions Family Housing Program. All I heard was mission and thought, no. But after some time, I decided that I had had enough and I reached out to him and told him I'm ready. My family lived at the Midnight Mission where we eventually stabilized and became one of their success stories. It was there that I learned of the AmeriCorps Hope for the Homeless program in effort to have formerly homeless people reach out to people on the streets and connect them to critical services. I was asked to serve and I said yes. AmeriCorps taught me how to transform my passions and ideas in a service. They accepted me where I was and I learned to work with a team of people that shared the same goals and passions as I did. I learned that there's not just one right way. I learned unity. I felt like I was a part of something huge and I was. AmeriCorps opened a whole new path for my children and me and we started volunteering during our spare time. I can remember one Christmas when I went to help with the Christmas event for homeless families in downtown Los Angeles. As I went out the door, my then seven-year-old asked, where are you going, mommy? As I told him, he asked to come along. He never thought that he was leaving all his new presents behind. He too wanted to help others. In May of this year, that seven-year-old graduated from high school and applied to be an AmeriCorps member. And in his bio, he wrote that his inspiration comes from his mother. He says that I motivate him and I, what makes him want to serve and to make a difference in his community. Today, he's serving with public allies. Some leaders may be born leaders. However, through AmeriCorps, I learned to be a leader. Today, I'm the program manager of Hope for the Homeless and I oversee a team of 20 AmeriCorps members and together we strategize ways to make our community better. And I hope that as you are sworn in today and groomed as a leader, you too will see that you're a powerful example of how to serve. Please know that you too will be an inspiration to many. Thank you and best wishes on your new journey. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the President of Bank of America, California, Janet Lampkin. Good afternoon, good morning, everybody. This is so great to get up here to see this. As we are here today to celebrate the 20th anniversary of AmeriCorps here in California and throughout the country, it's really all about connecting individuals, families, and communities together through service. I want to start by thanking Secretary Karen Baker, who is an example to all of us. And I think that when President Kennedy had that encouragement to the nation that said, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country, Karen was probably a toddler, but she was obviously listening carefully. So Karen, thank you for all you do for the state of California. And on behalf of the 40,000 employees of Bank of America and colleagues of mine here in California, it's my privilege to say thank you AmeriCorps and to the many AmeriCorps members here today, past and present, whose commitment over the last two decades has improved the lives of so many people, strengthened our communities, and inspired us all with your vision of power and grace, of helping other people. Congratulations to all of those here today. Hopefully you've got your backpacks on your back and on your seat from us that will help you go forward. When I stop and think about the work that AmeriCorps does, it's clear to me that government can't do this type of work alone, nor should it. It takes a collaboration between public, private, and non-profit to address those big issues successfully. And AmeriCorps is a very powerful example of this collaborative principle in action. We get that at Bank of America, and we stand up to that call. It's one of the reasons we're so drawn to this program. We approach others in a similar fashion. For example, we think it might be possible to eliminate the scourge of the AIDS epidemic in Africa in a single generation, and we've partnered with the Red Organization, and Bono, to raise millions of good dollars. It's that kind of unusual collaboration to take on these issues. Of course, it helps if you have a platform like ours that connects so many people to these issues. That's why I was drawn to last week's New York Times editorial celebrating the 20th anniversary of AmeriCorps. When they pointed out, and I quote, the demand to join AmeriCorps far exceeds the number of positions available, end quote. The Times credits AmeriCorps with enhancing not just the service that members provide in our communities, but also, and I quote again, the culture of service, end quote. That's because you, AmeriCorps recruits, are far more likely than the general population to continue to be engaged in your communities as a result of the experience you get with the Corps, and that's why this country needs maybe more than anything else you today. At the end of the day, it's not AmeriCorps, and it's not the private sector. It's you. You are the service, and on behalf of everybody, we want to thank you for what you will do for us and what you have done for us. Now, I want to give you just a brief glimpse, also, of the power of what goes on at AmeriCorps. This is a story of a 23-year-old AmeriCorps member serving with City Year Silicon Valley on the Bank of America team at Goose Elementary School. Last year, she worked with a third grade student named Jose. She found him disengaged, disrespectful. He was clearly slipping through the cracks. In fact, he was two grade levels behind his peers, but she also saw that he was full of potential. So she worked with Jose during and after school all those long hours that it takes, and she saw him come alive. His passion for science was palpable, and so one day he asked her if she would help him with the School of Science Fair. Well, together they created an incredible solar energy project that not only won the School of Science Fair, it went on to win the District Science Fair. By the end of the year, Jose was fully engaged and eager to come to school, and now he's jumped two levels in one semester. That AmeriCorps member is here today with us, Kayla Zamora. Kayla, please stand and let us thank you for your service. Kayla's story is a powerful one, and each of you are going to have your own stories to tell for generations, so thank you. And now it's my extreme pleasure to introduce California's Governor Jerry Brown, who we've all heard already today, really started this movement when he created the California Conservation Corps in his first tenure as governor. But if you all think about it, Governor Brown is a man who has dedicated his entire life to service and who throughout his long career has always championed the value of people serving. I think Governor Brown was echoing the President Kennedy act not speech when over a year ago, he told the graduating class at UC Berkeley, and I'm quoting Governor Brown, many have told you to get ready for the pressures of the marketplace. I tell you, get ready to be an active citizen, end quote. Please welcome our Governor Jerry Brown. Thank you very much. This is a pretty exciting day, impressive group of people. You really are in a long tradition. It didn't start with Kennedy, it really started with Roosevelt in the Civilian Conservation Corps. That was during the Depression, things were really screwed up then. Although if you look around today, they're screwed up in a very different way. Things don't work in Washington. Europe is having its problems of stagnation. We've got issues with Russia and Asia, they've got problems. I mean, there's a lot of things you could be worried about. But the point is not to worry about stuff, but to do things and to get engaged as you are. And while the big picture out there is complicated, it's not really subject to your individual control. But where you can have an impact is right where you are and where you're working. In a neighborhood, on a block, in a service center, in a community. Because all the big stuff basically is built on top of little stuff, of individual people. Families, schools, neighborhoods, little businesses. It's all a big pyramid. And you're working at the base. And if the base is strong, then the entire structure will be enduring and sustainable. We are living in a point of throwaway, obsolescence, impermanence, and the whole notion of sustainability is an idea that is as crucial and as urgent as it is not fully embraced yet. Because a lot of stuff is made just to be passed on. We extract and we push it through the system, then we throw it away. And I see service as something in its essence as connecting people together. One human being or another human being working in a relationship that knits together the neighborhood and the community. So AmeriCorps is building on the California Conservation Corps. Yeah, watch those folks there. And the California Conservation Corps built on the Peace Corps and the Peace Corps built on the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps. The reason I named the California Conservation Corps I wanted that CCC to have the same initials as the original CCC. And even today, you can find trails and benches and murals that came from earlier service organizations. There's also something called the Works Project Administration. And they actually hired poets and painters and muralists. And they did stuff that exists even today. So really realize you're a part of a long and important movement of awareness and consciousness and solidarity. So with that, let's swear all you folks in so we can stop talking and get going. All right, what do you do? Stand up, yeah. I think I can handle this. All right. Do they raise their hand or anything? Okay, raise your right hand, folks. And repeat after me. I'll say the whole sentence. But can they remember it? All right. I will get things done for America to make our to make our people safer, smarter, and healthier. I'll bring Americans together to strengthen our communities. Face with apathy. I will take action. Face with conflict. I'll seek common ground. Face with adversity. I will persevere. I will carry this commitment with me this year and beyond. I'm an AmeriCorps member and I'll get stuff done. Congratulations. Let's go for it. Thank you so much, Governor Brown, for those inspiring words. Did we learn a little bit about our history? It's fabulous. Fabulous. I wish you could see what we see from this podium. It is just so inspiring. Now we're going to have a little bit of fun opportunity, which is to have a great barbecue reunion lunch. Are you ready? What we're going to do this is going to be really interesting. I got this worked out. What we're going to do is we're going to start. We're going to have you guys go to the wonderful food lines. If you look two buildings down, you're going to see a gentleman waving his hands with a red apron. You're going to see a bunch of red blankets. Those are your picnic blankets. Each picnic blanket seats about four to five people. Okay. The one thing I will tell you is after you get your meal, you'll find your blanket, have a sit-down, visit, just have fun before we do our service project at one o'clock, and we'll announce when those get started. The fun thing is there wasn't enough picnic blankets for everybody to get one, but you get to decide what's the blanket. You can do rock, paper, scissors. You can do what you need to do. I don't know why that meant something, but I'm glad it did. Use anything you want. That'll be part of the fun. We're going to start first and I would like our VIPs to please feel free to rise and they're on this section here. I need all other people to remain seated. They're going to be walking and following our great AmeriCorps ambassadors that you see in the gray scarves. They're there as your ushers, your escorts, answer any questions you might have, and they'll be taking groups this group first, then this middle section, and then this section. It's okay, guys. It's going to go real fast. Okay? After you enjoy your meal and I will let you know there's going to be three places where you sit. The VIP section is the lower part of the field. Then there's AmeriCorps programs with the letters A through C. Okay? So if you're A through C, regardless of when you go through the food line, where you sit, be sure you sit in the section C and then there's D through Z. Yeah, for some reason there's a lot of AmeriCorps programs that have A through C as their first letters. So that's why it works out that way. So we have about 1,500 of you eating today and we're ready for it. This is going to be awesome. So just you'll grab your meal, you'll find your blanket, your executive directors and program staff that are in this group are going to pre-identify a pod of blankets for you to populate. Okay? So they're going to go out there with the name of your program and just own it. Okay? So now you're going to be reserved. You don't have to worry about it. The one thing I remind you is to please take your Bank of America drawstring backpack. Hopefully you will very much enjoy that. Your program, if you would like to take that side so we have no littering, that would be really appreciated. And then at one o'clock you're going to be hearing an announcement letting you know about the service projects. Our drought project will be taking place on the black top behind the water stations which are on a cement sidewalk right next to the blankets. Okay? There's also going to be our veteran homeless veteran comfort toolkit project also back there. Our environmental service projects those participating environment you're going to be meeting with a group over here when it's time. Our education over here and then you're going to board buses in the case of some of those environment and all of those education. You're going to be taken to your sites to do your service and then we'll all meet back here between right around four o'clock. Okay? So you're going to want to take everything with you just to be safe. Sound good? Is there any questions from a group of a thousand people? I don't think so. Okay? It is my birthday, yes. Very much. Thank you. Gotta say I've never had a thousand people say it's your birthday to me. So thank you very much for that. That was very kind. So the first group is almost done. Do you see how fast that went? Okay? You're going to find this to be lovely. Okay? There's going to be music playing up here and also visuals of the swearing in that took place this morning. If you'd like to look at that. Enjoy you guys. You deserve it. Thank you.