Dear Colleagues:

Greetings and best wishes for the New Year. 2008 is off to a strong start and promises to be an extraordinary year for national and community service, as momentum and interest in service continues to grow and as we build on our record of success and impact.

Our first major opportunity of the year - the 2008 King Day of Service - is only 9 days away. I hope every member of the national service family is planning to participate. Widespread involvement by our network is a vital step in transforming the King Holiday into a national day of service and in building the society King dreamed of. Its also helps you recruit volunteers, partners, and support to achieve your program’s mission throughout the year.

If you have not already done so, please register your service project at http://www.mlkday.gov. It’s an easy way to let everyone know about your King Day project and manage your volunteers, and it’s key for telling the national story of how Americans are honoring Dr. King through service. At the website you can also learn what other projects are taking place, get tools and resources, see the new MLK videos from President’s Council members, and learn about new and existing partners that have committed to making this day a national success.

Thanks to strong support from the King family and the leadership of our partners and grantees, more Americans are seeing the King Holiday as “a day on, not a day off.” As we continue to drive home that overarching message, we want your help in pushing out three other points:

1. Serve on the King Day and Beyond: Service is the right way to honor Dr. King on his holiday -- and throughout the year. The King Day should be a call to action for year-round service. Among other ways, we encourage you to explore “40 Days of Nonviolence: Building the Beloved Community” and the “Semester of Service” initiatives for ideas about extending service beyond the King Holiday.
       
2. Service isn’t just nice, it's necessary: Dr. King understood that citizen action was a necessary step to eradicate injustice and poverty and to “make America what it ought to be.” Service is a powerful way to realize King’s dream – a highly effective intervention to prevent violence, improve education, help youth succeed, and create closer and stronger communities. King Day is a perfect opportunity to advance this idea, gain support for your efforts, and expand your volunteer base.
       
3. Make a Commitment - Mentor: America needs more volunteers to meet a wide range of community needs, but one stands out for urgent action: finding caring mentors for children in need. Millions of young people have no trusted adult in their life – yet we know that mentoring can make the difference between a life of despair and loss and one of accomplishment and hope. As you plan your King Day activities, I hope that you will consider opportunities to highlight mentoring and recruit new mentors.

On that last point, the Corporation is excited to again be joining with MENTOR and the Harvard Mentoring Project to celebrate National Mentoring Month in January. Many of our state commissions, grantees, and projects are spearheading state and local efforts to raise awareness of mentoring and recruit new mentors. The Corporation’s website offers an array of resources including a mentoring toolkit, research, and links to MENTOR’s website where individuals can find mentoring opportunities and to the official National Mentoring Month site that has mentoring videos from national leaders and information on the January 24th Thank Your Mentor Day.

I look forward to the best King Day of Service ever and hearing how your projects build on this momentum throughout the year.

In service,

David Eisner
CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service

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