WASHINGTON, D.C. - Employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) observed National Volunteer Week - April 15-21 - by preparing and distributing food for the needy, receiving instruction on pro bono legal work and engaging in many other kinds of volunteer activities. In addition, James Hester, an environmental policy specialist with USAID, received President George W. Bush's highest award for a lifetime of volunteer service during the agency's annual awards ceremony April 16.

On that day, a 15-member team from the USAID Bureau for Asia and the Near East prepared packaged meals at a local non-profit organization in northeast Washington. The meals are delivered to community residents with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses. One USAID volunteer said, "It felt especially good to help out because these organizations helped my mother during her chemotherapy two years ago." Other USAID staff helped with food distribution at a local area food bank.

Also last week, attorneys and legal support staff from the USAID Office of the General Counsel welcomed a representative of the U.S. Department of Justice for a presentation on pro bono legal work by U.S. Government attorneys and legal support staff. A number of USAID attorneys are already active in performing volunteer (legal and non-legal) work throughout the D.C. area, but the presentation provided ideas and ethical guidance for a number of attendees interested in performing pro bono work.

The Call to Service Award was given to Mr. Hester in recognition of a lifetime record of community volunteer service. Ambassador Randall L. Tobias, Director of Foreign Assistance and USAID Administrator, presented the award in appreciation for Hester's service as a Civil Air Patrol search-and-rescue mission pilot, as the founding board member of a local private school, and as a volunteer appeals board and ethics board commissioner in his hometown of Laurel, MD.

President Bush established the President's Volunteer Service Awards to encourage Americans to render volunteer service in their local communities, elsewhere in the United States, and abroad. Volunteers who have served more than 4,000 hours -approximately the equivalent of two years of work - are eligible for the Call to Service Award.

Information on volunteer opportunities and on the President's Volunteer Service Awards is available on the Web site of USA Freedom Corps, the White House coordinating office for volunteer service: www.usafreedomcorps.gov.

For more information about USAID, visit our Web site at www.usaid.gov.

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