 This is your house as much as mine. It's our national home. This white mansion and the gleaming marble monuments we have in the city here represent the ideals of generations of young people before you. If you're inspired by the great marble monuments of Washington and identify with the passion behind the inscriptions, well, that's as it should be. Those monuments, this city and this country, are dedicated to you and a belief that you'll reach for the stars and lift mankind to even greater heights. Every generation sees farther than the previous generation because it stands on the shoulders of those who went before. Seeing you today and knowing of the energy and dedication you bring to the American volunteer spirit, I know our nation will only become stronger and greater when you are leading us. Most of you are members of the national volunteer organizations, I understand, and I'm sure you understand the importance of helping others in these difficult times. But you may not be aware that volunteering is an old American tradition. We've always been a country of neighbors depended on one another. A strong cooperative community spirit is the heart and soul of our democracy and the key to our quality of life. Your efforts at this national youth volunteer meeting and the projects that you will tackle afterward have a great potential for enriching that American spirit. I sat here at dinner one night in one of the state dinners and had someone from another country which I won't name. I was talking about something to do with our volunteerism program bill. And this person said, well, yes, you can here in America. And I was kind of curious. And then what she was frankly admitting was that not in very many places in the world, but this one, do we have that spirit where we get together and do something voluntarily and have those kinds of programs. By improving the recruitment and recognition of youth volunteers, you could greatly increase their impact on community welfare. With better communication and cooperation, you could bring about even greater and more dramatic results. My challenge to you young people here today is to return to your hometowns with a special mission. Initiate a collaborative program similar to the Washington DC Youth Volunteer Fair. And then keep me informed of how you do. If we can start those fairs in cities and towns across America, the momentum of youth building a better tomorrow will inspire all of our citizens to join in the renewal. There's an old Irish proverb that says praise youth and it will prosper. Well, my praise for you today comes from my heart and I hope it will encourage you to work even harder for even greater goals. Now, I hope that praise and recognition for all our young volunteers will be a byproduct of this meeting. But more than anything, I hope to encourage your ideals and dreams so they'll grow with you and America will prosper. And when we're congratulating our younger volunteers, we mustn't forget the adults who have guided you, guided this young people project into an active leadership role. Many of these exceptional adults are with us today. And they're pretty easily identified. But I would like to give special thanks to Frank Pace and Bill Bricker, the members of the Task Force and private sector initiatives who devoted so much time and energy on behalf of you young volunteers. Bill Verity tells me that volunteerism is being successfully promoted across the country from youth to senior citizens. And you're all proof of that. And to help tell the story to the policymakers, I understand the private sector initiatives Task Force has produced a publication entitled Volunteers of Valuable Resource, which I look forward to reading. Now, I know that many of you young people have written letters to me about your volunteer experiences. And the Task Force has shared some of those comments with me. I'd like to read a couple of them. Karen Edwards, member of the Jamestown Girls Club in Jamestown, New York wrote, the satisfaction I receive from my volunteering far exceeds the amount of my weekly paycheck from my job at super duper markets. The satisfaction that I receive as a volunteer is simply seeing the joy in the girls' faces when I'm there for them to reach out to me. And Sidney Ridley, member of the YMCA in Nashville, Tennessee wrote, earlier this year, I participated in the love run for multiple sclerosis. And I enjoyed doing this very much because the idea behind this cause was so very close to me and my family because of my mother's illness. I ran 104 miles and was able to collect about $32 for this very worthy cause. Working with other underprivileged kids has been a most rewarding experience. And I feel that if I have any help to them, which I feel I am, I will have served to help my country and the world. You know, I have to tell you just a little and briefly as I can a little poignant story of the opposite way. And it made me think that maybe we ought to have a billboards of this kind up all over the country. It was one of those nights in California when the storm season and down at Newport Beach, the homes along the beach there were being destroyed and washed away by the high tides and the waves that were breaking against them. And the TV stations from the community were down there getting this. And it was 2 o'clock in the morning. I was still watching TV because they were getting this. And you were seeing damage that was being done. But you were seeing the volunteers working throughout the night to sandbag these homes and try to save them. And at one point, 2 o'clock in the morning, and it gets cold in California at night. California is the only place in the world where you can fall asleep under a rose bush in full bloom and freeze to death. And this lad was still in his swimming trunks. And he was wet and he was cold and had to be tired. And he was still lugging sandbags. And one of the commentators caught him and got him in front of the camera. Did he live in one of these houses? No. He didn't live there at the beach. And finally the question came, well, why? Why was he doing this? And the answer was so poignant. And you've already found the answer and supplied it. He said, well, he stopped for a second. Well, he said, I guess it's the first time any of us ever felt we were needed when you are needed. And there's no limit to what you can do. I thank you for coming here today for lifting my spirits. And I'm sure my spirits will be lifted even more after I read the additional letters from the volumes, which I understand, or the volunteers which I understand you have for me today. I thank you for the work that you've done, the work that you're going to do. Wish you good luck and God bless you. And now I bet at one time in your life you've said, if I could only ask him a question, I'd like to know. And I don't have too much time because I understand we're going out there and I'm going to have a chance to meet each one of you individually. But you have. So you have a president? What? Mr. President, on behalf of the youth volunteers, we're presenting you with letters and thoughts on the importance of volunteerism. Thank you very much. And I guarantee you. And people in my staff know this is true. I'll read them, everyone. I thank you very much for this. And now if we do, for a few minutes, have a little time when someone wants to ask a question. You do, fire away. This can carry out this dignity into America and enable it to spread. Now, carry out. You carry the dignity of your administration out and enable it to spread in our volunteer work. Well, I thank you very much for saying that we have a dignity to do that. But I think it is carrying on what you do because that is one of the characteristics that I believe in and believe this country has and that we were in danger and have been in danger of losing is drifting into a belief that, well, government would do it all. We didn't need to do things voluntarily. And if you carry on with that, and as far as dignity is concerned, that goes with what we have the most of of any country in the world. It is the dignity of individual freedom, the dignity of the individual that he is supreme. You know, I've read a lot of constitutions. I guess every country's got a constitution. I've read the Soviet constitution. I don't think they have, but I have. And there's a difference. Maybe this isn't true of all of them. But let me just tell you one great difference that spells out just what you're talking about and which goes with the dignity of being free. Almost all of the constitutions are all of them that I've seen of other countries say, here are the things that the government allows the people to do. And our constitution says, we the people will allow the government to do the following things. Our constitution is our bill of particulars that says to the government, these are the only things you can do. And if they aren't in here, you can't do them. And it's a very unique thing and we should always remember it. Someone else? Oh, there, and then I'll come back here. From New York, I was wondering if you could give us just one message for all of us here to bring back to our community and help us move on volunteers. Just one short simple message. Oh my. I was trying to be there to so many pages here. Well, yes, it is that there is, that these volunteer efforts can do it so much more efficiently. The things that you're doing. So much more effectively than government can. That it isn't a case of waiting for government to do it, but take a look at the neighborhood, the community, the thing that needs doing, and then find out how you can enlist people to do this. More than 100 years ago, a Frenchman visited this country and when he went home, he wrote to his fellow Frenchman about what he had seen here. And he said that the thing that he noticed was he said, you know, in America, someone sees a problem that needs solving and they cross the street and talk to a neighbor about it. And the first thing you know, a committee has formed. And he said, finally, the problem is being solved. And he said, you won't believe this, but not a single bureaucrat had anything to do with it. You take that one home. And then I'll come to you. Yes, I'll come straight across. My name is the Boys Clubs of Denver. And I was wondering, we've been talking about volunteers and everything like this, but I want to know exactly what have you done in terms of volunteer work over your life? And I was wondering, what exactly has it been personally to you? Well, as far back as I go, it's a varied experience. And when I was in Hollywood and in the motion picture industry, I was an officer and a member of our guild, the Screen Actors Guild, for some 25 years and six times its president. And unlike a lot of union officers in our guild, you serve for free. It was a volunteer effort, but have also been connected with many of the worthwhile and the charitable efforts. And frankly, I think also the job I've got right now is a kind of a volunteer job. But the reward for it. And then I was raised to believe in the principle of tithing and believe in giving of yourself as well as of whatever material resources you have. And I think it was summed up better than I can say it, by a man who spent his entire life with the Salvation Army. He said, life begins when you begin to serve. And I think that I believe that and believe it has for me. Mr. President, the last question, then we have to volunteer and take some pictures. Oh. Mr. President, I'm John Edd, from the PC Village leaders of America and from California. And I know that you have a lot of goals and dreams for our country. Is there one goal that we as youth volunteers can help you accomplish? Yes, and it is in this very overall thing. Oh, there are lots of goals and things that I mean that are part of my job that we have to get done, we have to restore the economy. We've got to solve this tragic problem of the extensive unemployment in our land. But I think the real goal is summed up in getting back to the very thing that Bill Verity is heading up for us as a volunteer himself. This private initiative thing where we find all the areas that are out there and the things that can be done and that don't call for a gigantic bureaucracy or a government program, because those somehow there isn't the heart in it done that way that there is when it is neighbor to neighbor. And to see America seek out and solve these problems for itself, if we could get back to that, the that would, I would feel that I had accomplished a great deal if we had that in our country. It, we once had it. When I was your age and younger, growing up, the things that we heard about, when World War I ended, we went to the aid of the stricken countries, both enemies and friends, and a man named Hoover headed that commission up as a citizen volunteer, and it was a volunteer effort. We fed the hungry of the world. When the great earthquake destroyed Tokyo, again, it was America to the rescue. And it wasn't done by a government program. It was done by volunteers. When I was a young man as a sports announcer and radio just starting, I remember doing, I guess, what must have been the first wasn't a telethon. Then it was a radio thong. All night at our radio station out in Iowa, because in Ohio, the floods had done such damage and we were raising money. And that was the volunteers who came in and a volunteer effort for restoring what had been done there. The feeding of the hungry and the famine, famines in India, other places in the world. Again, it was the volunteers. And it was a volunteer movement that just sprung from the grassroots of America. We just assumed it was our obligation to move and do something for those others. And if we could remember one thing, when World War II ended, and it looked like maybe we could have been falling into another dark ages, Pope Pius XII in Rome said, God has placed the fate of an afflicted mankind in the hands of America. And America is known and is capable of great and generous deeds. In fact, he said we had a genius for those deeds. Well, by this time we were beginning to do it kind of government-wise with a Marshall Plan and so forth. But let's keep that spirit alive and that what that lady told me here at that dinner that we are the most generous people on earth and we must never lose that. I know I've taken too much time and I have to go down the hall and then you're gonna come down the hall and we're gonna have our pictures taken now.