 Thank you very much. Thank you. That's a reversal of what should be going on. I should be applauding all of you. Well, a warm welcome to you all. I don't know how many of you stayed up the other night to watch the Academy Awards. I broke a rule and stayed up past midnight. They never called my name. But at this luncheon today, we're holding our own version of the Academy Awards for volunteer action. And the difference is that for today's awards, the American people are the winners. And that's because thanks to the efforts and endeavors of our recipients, America's a better and a more generous land. And we're finally starting to recognize the importance of our volunteers. I'm pleased to announce today that the theme of the 1984 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade will be a salute to the volunteer. So let me congratulate Don Judson, the volunteer president of the tournament, for letting me make that announcement. The historian Daniel Borstein has explained how this continent was settled. And although he may not have realized it, he also explained the motivation behind our award winners. He wrote, Groups moving westward organized into communities in order to conquer great distances to help one another drag their wagons uphealer across streams and for a hundred other purposes, they dared not wait for government to establish its machinery. If the services that elsewhere were performed by government were to be performed at all, it would have to be by private initiative. Well, this frontier spirit made them a strong and a self-reliant people. And that's the attitude of our winners. They don't make excuses, they make headway. And I wish we had time so I could explain and detail what each of our 20 recipients has accomplished and what each has given to the nation. They are marvelous, inspiring, and unselfish stories. For example, the retired members of King County Labor Council in Seattle, Washington, provide assistance to low income elderly in the area. They repair plumbing and electrical wiring, replace faulty steps, patch leaking roofs. In fact, while they're here, I wonder, I've got a leak problem myself. Another recipient is Chicago's Dr. Hugh, who has helped over a thousand Indonese, Indochinese refugees in Illinois learn English, adjust to our culture, and find employment. These new Americans couldn't have had a better example of what being an American means than Dr. Hugh in helping them. Candy Leidner founded MAD, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, after one of her own twin daughters was killed in an auto accident caused by a drunk driver. I know the award that we're bestowing today can't match the fulfillment that the members of MAD must feel in having saved lives, nor should it. But the award is the nation's way of recognizing your humanitarian contributions and all of our recipients' contributions. I'm told there's a German saying, two chambers hath the heart. Their dwelling live joy and pain apart. Well, our recipients today know both the chambers. Yes, you know the pain of the world, and that's what motivates you, but you also know the joy of helping and the deep sense of fulfillment that flows from such voluntary giving. By your generous unselfish deeds, you dwell in all our hearts. These awards are a token of our gratitude. Before I present the awards, however, let me thank the National Center for Citizen Involvement and Action Advisory Council, as well as the corporate and foundation sponsors for helping to make these honors possible. Bill Verity is sitting there at my table and was the head for a year of the task force that I think did a great deal to inspire and reinvigorate what has been for so many years a tradition of America, and that is doing things in a neighborly way, not expecting officialdom to come in and do it for you. I appreciate it, and there's another fellow there that I'd just like to have him stand for a second after I tell something. Over a year ago in Chicago, I visited a school, and it was a very unusual school. It was a school that was supposed to close its doors, but its principal lived in the school and refused to give up, and I visited that school down in one of the hardest hip areas of South Chicago, and saw these young people in that school and their spirit and their pride, even though the plaster was peeling off the walls and it was impossible to believe how they could keep it going. The teachers were giving themselves to the point that when lunchtime came, they were handing out and serving the food in addition to teaching their classes and all, and I was so carried away with what I had seen and the determination of all of them to keep this school open that I made a phone call before I left Chicago to Clemstone. One phone call, and a little less than a year later, I revisited that school. No broken plaster, board of governors that read like the who's who of the city of Chicago. Clemstone, after one phone call, had set them up. They have a scholarship fund. Every graduate of that school last year moved down to college. Clem, just let him see you for a second. He's lived in fear ever since because he thinks I might make another phone call, and this time it would have to do with the deficit. Well now, Governor George Romney and Tom Pawkin would come up here and please help in assisting in the handing out of these awards, whereas here he comes. All right, I'll relinquish this to you and I've got a chalk mark over here. We've done that before, Mr. President, with the Vietnam Veterans. Our first award winner is the Hispanic Women's Council of Los Angeles, which is dedicated to developing leadership skills and improving the quality of life of Hispanic women in Southern California. Volunteer activities include professional training, peer counseling, youth development workshops, and scholarships for older women returning to school, the Hispanic Women's Council. Although handicapped herself, Elizabeth O'Donnell teaches braille cooking and independent living skills to residents at the Illinois Visually Handicapped Institute in Chicago. Liz's positive attitude and capacity to inspire hope in others makes her a very special volunteer, Elizabeth O'Donnell. Friends of handicapped readers in Jackson, Mississippi provide talking books for the blind, visually impaired, and physically handicapped. Volunteers narrate and record religious works, books of local interest, and books by Mississippi authors. Friends of handicapped readers. Little Town Players was organized in 1975 to provide live theater to the residents of the rural area around Bedford, Virginia, where no theater existed and has become a major cultural force run entirely by volunteers throughout southwestern Virginia, Little Town Players. Thomas Dibley, a retired field geologist, uses his knowledge and skills as a volunteer mapper of California's complex geology. One set of maps he developed for the Forest Services of the Los Padres National Forest is valued at over one-half million dollars. Thomas Dibley, Jr. Alcoholics Anonymous begun in 1935 by two men diagnosed by medical specialists as incurable alcoholics, is a unique program of support example and friendship by recovering alcoholics for new members. Since AA's founding, over 650,000 men and women who have participated have overcome their alcoholism. Alcoholics Anonymous. Each year, over 120,000 children are born with hearing impairments, most of which can be corrected either surgically or through amplification if discovered early enough. The Infant Hearing Assessment Foundation developed its own test equipment with assistance from over 20 major U.S. corporations. The foundations, more than 2,000 volunteers, now test over 54,000 infants each year at no cost to either the participating hospitals or the parents. Infant Hearing Assessment Foundation volunteers. Frank Faree spent the last 45 years of his life until his death on March 11 of this year, helping people less fortunate than himself. Known as the Border Angel, he collected food, medicine and building supplies and delivered them to the poverty-stricken residents of southeast Texas and to two small towns in Mexico. Mr. Faree's work is now being carried on by the organization he founded, Volunteer Border Relief. Dr. Joseph Yu, a teacher of high school social studies in Chicago and an instructor at the National College of Education, is a volunteer who has helped over 1,000 Indochinese refugees to learn English, adapt to the American culture, obtain an education and acquire employment. In 1963, in Vietnam, he founded the International Association of Volunteers for Human Services and Leadership Training, and he's continued his work in America after the fall of Saigon to the communists. Dr. Joseph Nguyen Trong Yu. Jeremiah Milbank, President of the Board of Directors of Boys Clubs of America, has been instrumental in helping to encourage young people of disadvantaged backgrounds. In 1981, Mr. Milbank initiated a summer jobs program for ex-offenders and other high-risk youths in New York City. He was one of the early leaders in the major effort to combat drug abuse among the young, Mr. Jeremiah Milbank. Esther Schaefer began telecommunications for the death to provide online telephone assistance to the large population of deaf people in the Washington, D.C. area. Teddy, as it is known, is the first system in the United States that allows the deaf person to remain on the line while the volunteer makes the connection between a deaf person's equipment and a person who can hear. Esther Schaefer. Lupe and Guiano developed the National Women's Employment and Education Model Program in 1973 to assist women on welfare to become self-supporting. The program now with sites in seven locations includes skills, trainings, and scholarship and encourages local businesses to provide employment opportunities for the women in the program. Lupe and Guiano. Operation California is recognized for coordinating a major volunteer effort to provide surplus commodities from American companies to the Indochinese boat people forced from their homeland. Operation California. Oregon Food Share was formed in 1981 to meet the needs of over 152,000 unemployed Oregonians. In 1982, Oregon Food Share volunteers distributed over one million pounds of food and over 800,000 pounds of USDA surplus cheese to 225,000 state residents. An additional million pounds of food were distributed throughout the state through affiliated local programs. Oregon Food Share. For the past several years, Audrey McGregian of Cocoa Beach, Florida has been involved in virtually every aspect of providing assistance to victims of sexual assault in the Cocoa Beach, Florida area. In addition to giving thousands of speeches in the counties and the problem, she manages the hotline for the Commission against Sexual Assault and personally counsels from 70 to 90 cases annually. Audrey McGregian. Candy Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Drivers are mad in 1980 to seek reform of California's drunk driving laws. Since then, mad has grown to 111 chapters in 36 states and now includes court watch programs, public education activities, speakers, bureaus and assistance to victims and families of victims, mothers against drunk drivers. Volunteer Align Eye Projects is the largest and most diverse student-managed volunteer organization in the nation. It involves over 900 University of Illinois students in projects in 10 different activity areas. Volunteer Align Eye Projects. Retirees of the King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO, provide a resource of skilled craftsmen to assist low income elderly with home and appliance repairs. In 1982, the retirees made home and appliance repairs for over 2,000 of the Seattle area's older residents. AFL-CIO King County Labor Council of Washington Labor Agency Union retirees. Honeywell encourages employees to become involved in community volunteer activities both on their own time and through special projects sponsored or encouraged by the company. The 565 retired Honeywell employees who volunteered through their retiree volunteer program last year contributed over $1,130,000 worth of services to the community. Richard Webber, Corporate Vice President Honeywell, Inc. When Braniff International Airlines filed for bankruptcy in May 1982, the Dallas Fort Worth area was faced with providing employment for thousands of unemployed workers. Frito-Lay developed a multi-faceted program entitled the Mayor's Task Force to provide counseling, job search, assistance, and seminars. Special job fairs allowed 8,700 unemployed individuals to meet with representatives of over 200 companies. Dean Wayne Calloway, President, Frito-Lay, Inc. That concludes our award winners for 1983. Thank you, Mr. President.