President George W. Bush presented the President’s Volunteer Service Award to Dayalan Sanders of Sri Lanka and Diyana Sanders of Gaithersburg, Maryland in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on May 26, 2005. The ceremony, part of a White House celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, was also attended by President Yudhoyono of Indonesia.

Dayalan Sanders founded the Samaritan Children’s Home in 1994 in the small fishing village of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. On the morning of the tsunami, Sanders was alerted to the waves and saw a 30-foot wall of water rushing toward the orphanage. He shouted at the top of his lungs for the children to climb aboard a small launch with an outboard motor. Loading the 28 children of the orphanage into a small boat, he sped into an adjacent lagoon at the same moment the waves slammed into the orphanage, destroying the buildings. Nearly capsized from the huge waves, Dayalan and the children survived.

At home in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Dayalan’s sister Diyana Sanders was awakened by a phone call that a tsunami had hit Sri Lanka. Learning that her brother and the children survived the tsunami but the orphanage had been destroyed, Diyana began telling her brother’s story over and over in hopes of raising the $400,000 needed to rebuild the orphanage, which operates on donations. She has since opened a foundation fund and held open house fundraisers in hopes of collecting donations.

The President's Volunteer Service Award was created at the President’s direction by the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation and administered by the Corporation for National & Community Service. The Award is available to youth ages 14 and under who have completed 50 or more hours of volunteer service; to individuals 15 and older who have completed 100 or more hours; and to families or groups who have completed 200 or more hours. For more information about the Award, please visit www.presidentialserviceawards.gov.

Visit www.usafreedomcorps.gov or call 1-877-USA-CORPS to find an existing volunteer service opportunity in your area or to find more information about service programs, including national service programs such as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and Citizen Corps. USA Freedom Corps is also highlighting youth volunteer service. Visit www.usafreedomcorpskids.gov for games and ideas designed to show how America's youth are making a difference.

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