[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
[April 24, 1995]
[Pages 585-586]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Departure From Minneapolis
April 24, 1995

    Thank you. I'm so glad to see you all. As you can see, I'm here with 
Senator and Mrs. Wellstone and Congressman Vento and Congressman Luther 
and Attorney General Humphrey. And I'm glad to be here with all of them, 
and I'm glad to be with you.
    I also want to tell you, I'm glad I've got this big wind because I 
just had lunch downtown at a place called Peter's Grill, and I'm so 
full, I need a nap. [Laughter]
    Let me thank you for coming out today and tell you that I have had a 
wonderful trip to Minnesota. I want to thank the people here at the 
airbase for making me feel welcome, as they always do, and the Air Force 
reservists for their service. And I want to thank the young AmeriCorps 
members who are here today for their service.
    The men and women here at this Air Reserve unit have gone all across 
the globe to preserve our freedom and to fight for the freedom of 
others. They served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. They 
delivered food and supplies to people in Bosnia to help them survive. 
That's the longest airlift in history, thanks to the United States Armed 
Forces and the people here. And people here have even helped to fight 
the fires in California. We're grateful to all of them for all those 
services.
    I want to say something about the AmeriCorps volunteers here. In 
Minnesota alone, in this first year for AmeriCorps, they're

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making 200 houses or apartments into real homes for working families. 
And that is a noble thing to do. You're teaching more than a thousand 
children who might not make it without you, and I hope you'll keep 
working with them, because they need you. They need you as role models 
and mentors. And in their work, they are also piling up some credits for 
themselves to help them pay for the cost of going to college. They 
represent the tradition of American service at its best, and we thank 
all these young people for their service. Thank you very much.
    You know, this coming week is our National Volunteer Week, and 
tomorrow is a national day of service when a million Americans will join 
with many of you in special service all across America. It is fitting 
that National Volunteer Week should come now because volunteering is one 
of the best ways that Americans, and especially those fine people in 
Oklahoma, can deal with their grief and their pain and their loss.
    I must tell you that yesterday when I saw them and I realized what 
they had been through and how so many of them had continued to work to 
help their friends and neighbors and loved ones--some of them haven't 
slept in days--it reminded me once again that service is the greatest 
gift of citizenship in this country.
    And for all of you who are giving your service, whether here in the 
Reserve unit, or in AmeriCorps, or in some other way through your 
churches and synagogues or clubs or schools, I thank you, because the 
real heart of America is not in the Nation's Capital; it's out here with 
all of you and what you do every day to make your lives and this 
country's life better.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 3:15 p.m. at the Minneapolis-St. Paul 
International Airport. In his remarks, he referred to Hubert H. Humphrey 
III, Minnesota attorney general. The National Volunteer Week 
proclamation of April 21 is listed in Appendix D at the end of this 
volume. The National Youth Service Day proclamation of April 19, 1994, 
was published in the Federal Register at 59 F.R. 19123.