Michelle Obama Announces Summer Service Project in San Francisco [VIDEO]
First lady Michelle Obama greets students after helping to construct playground equipment during her visit to Bret Harte Elementary School in San Francisco, California June 22, 2009.
via The Caucus Blog:
First Lady Michelle Obama plans to urge Americans to participate in a summer of service by volunteering their time and energy to help the needy.
The initiative, which is called United We Serve, will encourage ordinary people to work on projects that focus on improving the nation’s schools, health care system and the environment, among other things.
Michelle Obama and California's first lady Maria Shriver speak to students prior to helping them to construct playground equipment during Obama's visit to Bret Harte Elementary School in San Francisco, California June 22, 2009.
The first lady, who has made community service a priority, will launch the project on Monday when she travels to California to join Maria Shriver, the wife of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, to help construct a public playground in San Francisco.
Several cabinet secretaries – including defense, education, homeland security – will also participate in community service projects around the country on Monday. The Obama administration hopes they will encourage people to embrace the United We Serve project, which will run from June 22 through Sept. 11.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates plans to spend time with wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan will help rebuild a home in New Orleans that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will visit the Police Athletic League in Philadelphia, where he will talk to young people and play basketball.
President Obama announced the initiative in a video message distributed by the White House earlier this week as he called on people to identify and work on community needs. His administration has created a Web site — www.serve.gov — to help people find local opportunities to volunteer.
“The challenges we face are unprecedented in their size and scope, and we cannot rely on quick fixes or easy answers to put us on the road to recovery,” Mr. Obama said in his video message.
“In this new century, we need to a build a new foundation for economic growth in America,’’ he added. “Economic recovery is as much about what you’re doing in your communities as what we’re doing in Washington — and it’s going to take all of us, working together.”
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