[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 43 (Monday, October 26, 1998)]
[Page 2073]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7141--National Character Counts Week, 1998

October 16, 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 follow 
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.
    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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 12:05 p.m., October 19, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on October 
20. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.