President Barack Obama Joins President George H.W. Bush to Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the 'Points of Light' Volunteer Movement and Extend the Call of Service to ...( COLLEGE STATION Texas Oct. 16 /- On F...),Health

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- On Friday, October 16, U.S. President Barack Obama will join U.S. President George Bush and more than 2,000 service leaders in Texas to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Points of Light movement and issue a new call to Americans to serve in their communities.

The anniversary marks President Bush's inauguration speech in 1989, in which he invoked "A Thousand Points of Light" to salute and encourage individuals to solve problems and improve their communities through volunteering and service. He backed up this idea by creating the Commission on National Service, which launched Federal activities supporting service. This idea and the framework for supporting it at a Federal level has endured and grown in the administrations of President William J. Clinton and President George W. Bush and now President Obama.

Michelle Nunn, Chief Executive Officer of Points of Light Institute said, "President Bush's contribution was extraordinary. Through the establishment of Points of Light, the passage of legislation that created pilot national service programs and launching the precursor of the Corporation for National and Community Service he founded the modern service movement. And we see the results in increased service, expanded stronger service learning, more business support and greater college-based service."

Points of Light Institute has been instrumental in driving the service movement. Since 1989, research from the Corporation for National and Community Service has found that the percent of Americans volunteering has surged, teen volunteering has doubled, business support for employee volunteering has become commonplace and high school and college-based service has reached new heights.

Under President Obama's leadership the pace of our service movement continues to grow. The passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act marked a new threshold of possibility with a dr
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