[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 202 (Tuesday, October 20, 1998)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 56073-56074]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-28323]



[[Page 56071]]

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Part III





The President





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Proclamation 7141--National Character Counts Week, 1998



Proclamation 7142--National Forest Products Week, 1998
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  Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 202 / Tuesday, October 20, 1998 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 56073]]

                Proclamation 7141 of October 16, 1998

                
National Character Counts Week, 1998

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                As Americans, we are a people full of hope, confident 
                in our capacity to make life better for ourselves and 
                others. We look forward to the promise of the future, 
                and we have high goals for the 21st century: to remain 
                the world's leading force for peace, freedom, 
                prosperity, and security; to keep the American Dream 
                alive for everyone willing to work for it; to come 
                together across lines of race, religion, and other 
                individual differences to become one America. But 
                everything we hope to accomplish depends, as it always 
                has, on the hearts and minds of the American people.

                One of the greatest building blocks of character is 
                citizen service. We must do more as individuals and as 
                a society to encourage all Americans--especially our 
                young people--to share their time, skills, enthusiasm, 
                and energy with their communities. Whether we teach 
                children to read, mentor young people, work at a food 
                bank or homeless shelter, or care for people living 
                with AIDS, citizen service calls forth the best from 
                each of us. It builds a sense of community, compassion, 
                acceptance of others, and a willingness to do the right 
                thing--all hallmarks of character.

                We can take great pride today in the numbers of 
                energetic, idealistic Americans who are participating 
                in service activities across our country and around the 
                world. Almost 90,000 young men and women have served 
                their communities through AmeriCorps during the past 4 
                years, tutoring students, mentoring children, building 
                homes, fighting drug abuse. Through our America Reads 
                initiative, Americans of all ages are volunteering 
                their time to help children learn to read independently 
                by the end of the third grade. Through Learn and Serve 
                America, the Corporation for National and Community 
                Service encourages America's schools to add service 
                learning to their curricula so that all students--from 
                kindergarten through graduate school--can develop their 
                character, skills, and self-confidence while making 
                their own unique contributions to the life of their 
                communities. In the National Senior Service Corps and 
                the Peace Corps, in religious, school, community, and 
                charitable organizations, Americans strengthen the 
                character of our Nation by volunteering to improve the 
                quality of life for their fellow human beings. During 
                National Character Counts Week, let us reaffirm to our 
                children that the future belongs to those who have the 
                strength of character to live a life of service to 
                others.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim October 18 through October 
                24, 1998, as National Character Counts Week. I call 
                upon the people of the United States, government 
                officials, educators, religious, community, and 
                business leaders, and the States to commemorate this 
                week with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and 
                programs.

[[Page 56074]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-third.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 98-28323
Filed 10-19-98; 12:05 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P