    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 10 (Monday, March 10, 1997)]
    [Pages 273-275]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at the Unveiling Ceremony for the Coalition for America's
    Children Public Service Announcement

    March 3, 1997

        I want to thank all those who have been a part of this. Alex Kroll,
    thank you for what you said and for reminding us that we're about the
    business of helping parents, not disrespecting the difficulties they
    face. Christine Benero, thank you. Eva Kasten, the executive vice
    president of the Advertising Council, thank you. I thank the Benton
    Foundation, the AT&T Foundation, the Packard Foundation. I'd like to
    thank the people in our administration probably most directly involved
    in helping our children who are here today, Secretary Riley, Secretary
    Shalala, and Harris Wofford, the head of the Corporation for National
    Service.
        But most of all, I want to thank Bradley Pine and Lonzo Warren for
    coming here to share their story. Their relationship is a powerful
    example of what could be done all over America if we move from vague
    rhetoric to specific action directed at helping and supporting all of
    our children. Just think of what would happen in this country if every
    single child who needed a mentor had one. Think of what would happen if
    every person out there who is willing to volunteer to help, knew where
    to go and how to do it. The public service message we just saw, that
    Hillary and I were honored to participate in, is simply designed to
    remind every American that there are children out there who need our

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    support and to tell every American who wants to serve that there is a
    way to serve and we will help you do it.
        We know that being a parent is the most difficult and important job
    in the world. And we know that everyone has to help. Hillary has been
    working on these children's issues since before I met her, a long time
    ago now, and I think that the book that she wrote did capture the image
    of the village raising our children. But it should not be allowed to
    obscure the fact that what that really means is that each and every one
    of us has a personal responsibility to do our part. And also, thanks to
    this effort, it will be easier for people to understand how to exercise
    that responsibility.
        I'm especially fond of the work that we have done in this regard.
    We've done all we could to encourage citizen service. We now have more
    than 50,000 young people working in AmeriCorps, earning money to go to
    college. Many, many of them are helping our children in supportive ways.
        Last summer, we launched our America Reads program to try to
    mobilize one million volunteer tutors in America to make sure that by
    the year 2000 every single 8-year-old in this country can read
    independently and will have a chance to make the most of his or her
    education. Today I am pleased to announce that Scholastic Books is
    donating one million books to help us reach that goal. We need more
    companies like Scholastic Books to give more Americans the opportunity
    to serve.
        In January, I was proud to stand right here with President Bush and
    General Colin Powell and former Secretary of Housing and Urban
    Development Henry Cisneros to announce that we are convening the first
    ever President's summit of service in April in Philadelphia, to bring
    together business, religious, community leaders committed to support
    citizen service with resources and volunteers. With their help, I hope
    we can make the plea we make in this public service announcement a
    reality for tens of thousands of more people in the United States.
        This public service announcement is just what it seems to be. It
    seeks to help in mobilizing a volunteer force of Americans. It reflects
    the wisdom that no impersonal bureaucracy can ever replace the magic
    that we saw here between Bradley and Lonzo or the feeling that Lonzo
    expressed for his own family who are here with him today. What we can do
    is to make it possible for more things like that to happen and to give
    our children the basic supports they need to make it happen. But in the
    end, we must make this vast, big complicated society of ours more of a
    society in which we all feel that we should volunteer and, like Bradley,
    we know we're going to be better off for doing it. We'll get more out of
    it than we give. We have to create the networks to facilitate that kind
    of voluntarism.
        The public service announcement, as you saw, gives people a number
    to call, a web site to visit, to learn about organizations in their very
    own communities where they can volunteer their time, to become a reading
    tutor or a math coach or a mentor to a child in need. Beginning today,
    anyone visiting the White House home page on the Internet will be able
    to connect to the coalition's web site with just a click of the mouse
    and find out what they can do to help.
        The more people this message reaches, the more children will be
    helped. So far, some of our biggest television, cable, and radio
    networks have committed to air this message during times when it will
    have the best chance of inspiring the largest number of people.
    Newsweek, the New York Times, and People magazine will also run the
    message in their pages. And movie-goers will see it in theaters all over
    the country, thanks to promotion slide and cinema advertisers. This is a
    very good start. But let me encourage other media organizations around
    the country to help to make sure this message is heard by as many people
    as possible, to help to work with us to encourage the spirit of service
    in America, to strengthen our families, to improve the lives of our
    children one at a time.
        Whenever you think about what else we can do, just think of Bradley
    and Lonzo and multiply it by millions and imagine the America we can
    make together.
        Thank you. God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:17 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Alex Kroll, chairman, Advertising
    Council; Christine Benero, chair, Coalition for

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    America's Children; Lonzo Warren, a 15-year-old high school student from
    Hyattsville, MD, and his mentor, Bradley R. Pine.