Dear National Service Colleagues:

Thank you to all who responded to our request earlier this month for information on your disaster response efforts in the Gulf region and plans for commemorating the upcoming anniversaries of Katrina and 9/11.

We believe these anniversaries, so close together, provide a unique opportunity to shine the spotlight on Americans’ willingness to volunteer immediately after these disasters and encourage them to give again, whether by volunteering in the Gulf or in their own communities.

To that end, from now through September 11th, we will be promoting a series of activities under the theme, “Serve to Remember. Remember to Serve.” We encourage you to join in this national call to service by finding ways to tie planned activities and events to this theme. Visit http://www.nationalservice.gov/pdf/katrina_project_toolkit.pdf to access the “Serve to Remember” toolkit, which contains a variety of tips, ideas, and templates to help you generate awareness and media interest at the state and local level.

Below is a list of the activities taking place at the national level:

• Gulf Coast Tour, August 28-30: Members of the Corporation’s Board of Directors, along with members of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, will tour a series of national service projects in Louisiana and Mississippi to gain a better understanding of our programs’ unique role and impact, and the continued need for volunteers in the region.
• National Service Anniversary Report: On Monday, August 28, the Corporation will release its one-year report on the contributions of national service programs to relief and recovery efforts. To date, more than 36,000 national service participants have contributed more than 1.6 million hours of service to relief and recovery efforts, and leveraged an additional 92,000 community volunteers.
• Media Outreach: The Office of Public Affairs is reaching out to national print and broadcast media to help ensure that the “volunteer story” is told within the media coverage of these two anniversaries. To help garner coverage, we are promoting the following:
  • Service Projects – Through our earlier request for information, we have identified nearly 100 service projects or commemorative events that you have planned around the Katrina or 9/11 anniversary. We have been promoting these events through media advisories as part of a nationwide serve-a-thon that pays tribute to the compassionate response that took place in the wake of both Katrina and 9/11. You can promote your local service project as part of this national effort.
  • Research – Several pieces of research examine the effects disasters have on Americans’ civic behaviors. A compendium of related research is included in the toolkit mentioned above.
  • Compelling Stories of Service – Through your earlier submissions, we have been identifying unique perspectives and spokespeople to help demonstrate national services’ role in disaster response and community rebuilding. While we have identified several volunteer stories related to Katrina, we are still looking for stories related to 9/11. If you know of an individual who decided to volunteer or join a national service program as a result or 9/11, please send their name, contact information, and a brief description of their compelling story to smaynard@cns.gov.

If you have specific questions related to these “Serve to Remember” ideas, please feel free to contact one of the following Corporation staff:

• Siobhan Dugan at sdugan@cns.gov
• Sandy Scott at sscott@cns.gov
• Shannon Maynard at smaynard@cns.gov

Thank you again for your efforts in the response to these tragedies and the other challenges that your programs tackle everyday.

In Service,

Sandy Scott
Director of Public Affairs