    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 16 (Monday, April 25, 1994)]
    [Page 852]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 6674--National Youth Service Day, 1994 and 1995

    April 19, 1994

    By the President of the United States

    of America

    A Proclamation

        On September 21, 1993, I had the great pleasure of signing into law
    a new national service program, using the same pen that John F. Kennedy
    used to create the Peace Corps. That event was particularly meaningful
    to me because so many of my own dreams about national service began when
    President Kennedy challenged my generation to ask what we could do for
    our country--and thousands responded as Peace Corps volunteers.
        Thirty years later, a new generation of young Americans is not
    waiting to be asked. All along the Presidential campaign trail, young
    people told me again and again what they wanted most--the opportunity to
    make a difference. So we created AmeriCorps, a new national service
    program. Now, the real work of rebuilding America must begin.
        This year, 20,000 young AmeriCorps members will provide hands-on
    community-based service to meet our Nation's urgent needs--in education,
    in public safety, in health care reform, and in the environment. In
    exchange for a commitment to service, AmeriCorps members will receive
    many benefits. They will get education awards to help them pay off
    student loans and finance further education. They will have an
    experience that will change their lives forever. But the most important
    benefit of national service will be seen in the accomplishments of the
    participants in the communities they serve. With young people at the
    vanguard, AmeriCorps can help to bring the American people back together
    with a sense of working toward a common purpose.
        I know that it can be done. Last summer, we launched a pilot service
    program to see if AmeriCorps could really work to strengthen
    communities. As a result of our Summer of Service program, 87
    participants in Texas helped to immunize over 100,000 children. Fifty
    participants in New York City operated summer day school programs at the
    Harlem Freedom Schools for 643 at-risk youths. And 74 participants
    through Boston's City Year program provided educational, health, and
    environmental services that reached more than 14,200 individuals. If
    national service participants can have that kind of impact in 8 weeks,
    just imagine what they can accomplish in a year--or two--of service to
    their communities.
        In the youth of America lies our hope for the future. Throughout our
    history, our young men and women have challenged us to reach for goals
    that seemed beyond our grasp, to reach for an understanding between all
    people of good will.
        The Congress, by Public Law 103-82, has designated April 19, 1994,
    and April 18, 1995, as ``National Youth Service Day'' and has authorized
    and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of
    these days.
        Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United
    States of America, do hereby proclaim April 19, 1994, and April 18,
    1995, as National Youth Service Day. I urge every American to observe
    these days with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities in
    honor of volunteers and in recognition of their extraordinary
    contributions to America.
        In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day
    of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and
    of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
    eighteenth.
                                                William J. Clinton

    [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:33 a.m., April 20,
    1994]

    Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on April
    21.