[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.