December 5th - that’s Friday, for those of you without calendars - is International Volunteer Day, a day to celebrate volunteers and demonstrate the power of service. The twist? The day is international and takes place in countries across the world, from Ireland to Indonesia and Sri Lank to Syria. Check out the list of events here, and get involved here.

IVD is especially focused on the Millennium Development Goals, a list of reacheable, positive initiatives that the UN and countries across the world have created as directives for the future. The MDGs include things like clean water, primary education for all children, and gender equity under the law. Here’s the IVD 2008 Youtube channel.

So go clean up in Kathmandu, celebrate in Cyprus, plant trees in Lebanon - or if you’re stuck at home somewhere, browse their website and send everyone celebrating IVD good thoughts come Friday!

Mike Gaines

If the kids in this picture look familiar, Michael Gaines wants to speak to you. One thing: the picture is close to 39 years old.

Via Amy at The New Service, I found this intriguing story about Mike Gaines, a former VISTA volunteer.

His job was being Big Brother to a group of African-American and Puerto Rican kids in the neighborhood.
“Most of them were between 7 and 10 years old,” he said.
“I helped them with their homework, talked to them about their problems. On the weekend, we would pay the dime to get on the subway and go to museums.”

Mike wants to know if he’s made a difference - and has been looking for anyone he worked with in 1968-9 to hear about their lives. The story’s about a month old, but there’s no update - so let us - and Mike - know if you have any leads!

In the ServiceNation offices of Be the Change, we’ve been lucky enough to receive all of your event reports. People have been working on spectacular projects all over the country (check out the Summary page; I’m updating that all day today and working through all the reports), and the power of service is breath-taking.

About a month ago, the Larry Dillon Service Project caught someone’s attention, and since then, many of us have been watching it unfold. It’s one of those truly selfless projects that hits you in the chest and says, “This is what service can do. It can help individuals and bring communities together.” I’ll let Mike’s event report take it from here:

Thirty-six licensed contractors, workers, and food servers from Northern Michigan converged on the home of Larry and Lynda Dillon in Manton yesterday, to take part in the National Day of Action. AmeriCorps member Mike Henry began the Larry Dillon Service Project to recognize the service of a volunteer in his Mentor Michigan program at Forest Area Community Schools in Fife Lake and to help strengthen the communities around Forest Area.

Larry Dillon had been disabled for four years and was attending online courses when Henry enlisted him as a mentor for an afterschool theatre arts mentoring program in early 2008. Dillon served as a sound/tech man for the program’s spring play and, because of his love for youth, went on to apply as a substitute teacher for Manton Schools. Henry recognized in Dillon a kindred spirit — the kind of sacrificial heart that embodied what he was all about. Dillon volunteered often to run the sound at civic events and to help low income families fix things around the house. His involvement in Henry’s mentoring program was only a part of what he chose as a lifestyle of service. Dillon has often been heard saying, “The only thing I can’t fix is a broken heart, but I can sure care for one” – a slogan that won over Larry’s wife, Lynda, more than 11 years ago.

This summer, though, Larry was diagnosed with terminal cancer after a brain tumor proved to be malignant – the one other thing Larry could not fix. The prognosis: He had less than a year.
Henry began showing his appreciation for Larry’s service by sitting with him as his wife went back to work. But as he talked with Larry, he felt the urgency to do more than sit. He helped him write letters to elected officials and government agencies to get assistance for medical costs – assistance pushed to the forefront by Rep. Darwin Booher (R). When Henry heard about the National Day of Action and Home Depot’s offer to provide some of the funds for grassroots events, he decided to spend his last month as an AmeriCorps member making Larry’s dying wish come true: finish renovations on his home.

Larry & Lynda Dillon arrive home to renovations on the Day of Action

Don works on framing in the house

Volunteers work on landscaping

View all the pictures from the Larry Dillon Service Project here.
Check out news coverage on the Project from 9&10 News.

Read the rest of the report after the jump.
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For most of today, I’ve been running around Denver to the different Delegate Day of Service projects! As we’ve mentioned, the Delegate Day of Service, organized by Michelle Obama and Colorado First Lady Jeanine Ritter, sent the delegations from all 50 states to work on service projects in the Denver area.

There were a ton of events going on, and I managed to make it to four: an EarthForce clean-up in Commons Park (EarthForce is an SN partner!), tree-planting in Curtis Park, a Volunteers of America event making and service lunch to homeless, and an elementary school clean-up. All of the events were spectacular. I got a change to give out ServiceNation palmcards, as well as speak to New York First Lady Michelle Paterson, wife of NY Governor David Paterson, who is speaking at the 9/11 Service Forum. I don’t have all the pictures (some are on someone else’s camera), but here’s a few, and a few more after the jump. I’ll put the full set on Flickr soon.

Force Elementary school clean-up with Hands On and Metro Volunteers

NY First Lady Michelle Paterson and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper plant a tree in Curtis Park
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A lot of people have volunteered in the Gulf Coast, and here are some great numbers, which summarize the power of citizens in service. It’s pretty awesome to see the actual data on what’s been happening: 59 playgrounds built by ServiceNation partner KaBoom!, 1,575,000 (that’s one and a half million) hours served by Salvation Army volunteers, twenty thousand college students volunteering during their Spring Break, and lots more.

And that’s only within a year (August 2006-2007), and only mentions certain organizations. New Orleans and the region aren’t back to normal at all, and there’s more work left - but we’ve come a long way.

“Hey! Want to get in on this action?”
(From our Flickr photostream: KaBoom! volunteers work on a mountain of mulch)

From all over China, citizens from every profession are arriving in the Sichuan province to help earthquake victims. The May 12 earthquake (which hit 7.9 on the Richter scale) left tens of thousands dead and thousands more without food, water, or shelter. Volunteers, however, are showing up in droves to help their fellow citizens (photo gallery here). They do everything from reuniting families to driving to the least-accessible areas with relief supplies. As one volunteer put it:

“I feel that the hearts of all Chinese people are tied together. I think that it’s having responsibility for society and the country that unites everybody. The experiences as a volunteer here will surely have a great influence on the rest of my life.”

The Washington Post also takes note of the degree to which China’s citizens and NGOs are stepping forward to help, and in many ways moving faster than the government. In the worst of tragedies there are always moments of grace and redemption. They can come from anywhere–friends, neighbors, even strangers–and often reveal communal bonds and a sense of shared destiny that were never before apparent. 

Volunteers play with Peng Shanghan, a 10-month old boy from Beichuan County, in Jiuzhou Indoor Stadium temporary resettlement zone, in Mianyang city of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, May 28, 2008. Over 100 volunteers from all over the country, offered psychological assistance and organized collective activities for the children there.  (Xinhua Photo)

The Value of Service: How much are volunteers worth? Independent Sector released new research with an “estimated dollar value” - the amount of benefit volunteers create for an organization. On average, in 2007, a volunteer in the U.S. was worth $19.51 an hour. Independent Sector admits that this is a somewhat subjective exercise, but partly because there are additional intangible benefits–”for example, volunteers demonstrate the amount of support an organization has within a community, provide work for short periods of time, and provide support on a wide range of projects.” All in all, the numbers are a very interesting attempt to gauge the value of volunteer time, which is a pretty useful exercise.

Take Action: New Orleans is still struggling, even though nearly three years have passed since Hurricane Katrina. To address this problem, CEOs for Cities has announced the Urban Next Summit, to take place in New Orleans July 24-25. Here’s a draft agenda (pdf), and it looks really interesting - there’s an idea round robin, an advocacy 101 panel, and a city tour - plus a ton more. You can apply here - check it out!

Changebloggers, Unite! Have Fun, Do Good has posted an awesome list of changebloggers. We’re on there (thanks!), and there’s some other great blogs listed. There’s also now a Changeblogger Facebook group. If you blog for change, join up. Maybe we can actually launch, umm, a movement.

Change the World: Up at University of New Hampshire’s graduation, City Year’s CEO and co-founder Michael Brown asked new grads to do one simple thing - change the world. He also told the graduates to be idealistic, and to think about pubic service. In his speech, Brown stressed the double value of service - the value to the volunteer, and the value overall. “It will not always be easy,” Brown said, but “being part of something larger than oneself is exhilarating.”

“Sure, Michael, we’ll help you change the world. Right after we wear our funny glasses to a few graduation parties.”
(Photo: John Huff/Foster’s Daily Democrat Staff photographer)