Whereas, the AmeriCorps national service program has proven to be a highly effective way to engage Americans of all ages and backgrounds in meeting a wide range of community needs and promote the ethic of service and volunteering since its creation in 1994; and

Whereas, each year AmeriCorps, including AmeriCorps VISTA and AmeriCorps NCCC, provides opportunities for 75,000 citizens across the nation, including approximately 640 current AmeriCorps members in Indiana, to give back in an intensive way to our communities, our state, and our country; and

Whereas, AmeriCorps has strengthened America’s independent sector by investing more than $5 billion dollars to support the efforts of tens of thousands of nonprofit, community, educational, and faith -based community groups

nationwide; and those grants have leveraged hundred s of millions of additional funds and in -kind donations from other sources; and

Whereas, AmeriCorps members last year recruited and supervised more than 1.7 million community volunteers, demonstrating AmeriCorps value as a powerful catalyst and force multiplier; and

Whereas, AmeriCorps members have served a total of more than 705 million hours nationwide, including 10,540,732 hours served since 1994 by members in

Indiana, helping to improve the lives of our state's most vulnerable citizens,

strengthen our educational system; protect our environment, and contribute to our public safety;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr , Governor of the State of Indiana, do hereby proclaim the week of May 11-18, 2008 as AmeriCorps Week in the State of Indiana, and invite all citizens to duly note this occasion.

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