Neighbors,

Check this out. Lets organize some service projects to 1/19/2008. Create an event now!.

Check out this great article that was just forwarded to me on http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com

December 17, 2008, 10:33 am
Obama Calls for National Day of Service
By Katharine Q. Seelye

Barack Obama is calling for a national day of service to take place on Jan. 19, the federal holiday for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and the day preceding Mr. Obama’s inauguration as president.

Mr. Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. are planning to roll up their sleeves themselves that day and perform some as-yet-unspecified service work in Washington, D.C.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee is putting the wheels for the project in motion with calls and e-mails to national service organizations. The committee is reaching out to organizations of all sizes and ideologies, including faith-based groups, unions and businesses as well as political groups — from Moveon.org on the left to Focus on the Family on the right — to motivate their members to participate.

“While government has an important role to play in helping rekindle our economy and addressing the problems of a distressed nation, President-elect Obama believes each of us, as Americans, have a responsibility to do what we can for our communities and fellow citizens,” said the e-mail, which was signed by the five co-chairmen of the committee.

The e-mail also suggested that the day of service would be the beginning of a larger effort.

“Unlike past calls to service, President-elect Obama will ask Americans to do more than just offer a single day of service to their cities, towns and neighborhoods,” the e-mail said. “He will ask all of us to make an ongoing commitment to our communities. Never has it been more important to come together in shared purpose to tackle the common challenges we face.”

Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for the inaugural committee, said the committee was exploring ways to engage the thousands of people who will be in Washington before the inaugural in some sort of service activity on Jan. 19.

The committee named a full-time manager, Buffy Wicks, the Missouri state director of the Obama campaign, to oversee the service project. It is also creating a Web site, to go live after the New Year, where organizations can share information and tell people how to get involved.

The e-mail called the inaugural “a great opportunity to set the tone for the next four years” and asked recipients to “rise to the challenge.”