Bush call for volunteerism: Will citizens take heed?

The overall effort will be coordinated by a new presidential assistant. More than $560 million within the president's fiscal year 2003 budget has been earmarked for Freedom Corps purposes, according to administration officials.

"Through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of service and decency and kindness, I know we can overcome evil with greater good," said Bush.

Freedom Corps, if nothing else, is likely an attempt to do something Bush did not do in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11: give ordinary Americans an opportunity to do something constructive with their anger and other emotions. Polls have shown an increase in interest in volunteerism since last year's terror attacks.

Boston University freshman Elizabeth Sexton watched Bush deliver his speech, and says that as far as she is concerned, the civilian call to volunteerism is admirable. Ms. Sexton already tutors and volunteers to help children at a local community center. Freedom Corps may be "a good way I can stay involved," she says.

Fellow BU student Jacque Caglia has volunteered at Massachusetts General Hospital and at student-run food-distribution organizations. She's also helping to organize an alternative spring-break trip, in which students will work at a nature conservancy instead of sun on the beach. "It's important especially at this time to do as much as possible," she says. "We need to take a stand and show we're not going to let what happened tear us apart as a nation."

Karen Eilers, a junior at Missouri Baptist College near St. Louis, supports the president's call to action too. Though she can't imagine taking up arms, she appreciates that volunteerism is seen as a viable alternative. She does volunteer work at Christmas. "It can make a difference. Every little bit helps," she says.

To some extent, the administration's initiative is not so much a new program as an expansion of past efforts, notes William Galston, a former adviser to President Clinton.

Virtually every governor has called for retention of AmeriCorps in recent years, in response to lukewarm support from congressional Republicans, says Mr. Galston. They've seen what it does at the ground level.

The Peace Corps has had a profound effect not just on other countries, but on the volunteers themselves. Returning Peace Corps veterans now constitute an important, internationally oriented civic network within the US.

Volunteer programs are "successful when they have a mission," says Galston. "I believe they're also successful when they help develop a kind of esprit de corps."

That being said, success is far from automatic. Funding and organization are important. Nascent volunteer groups need not just seed money but continued support and executive interest. Thus Galston says he is reviewing judgment on the Bush effort. "While it sounds promising in principle, I cannot yet figure out exactly what this plan means."

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