WASHINGTON -- Repeating his 1994 declaration that "service is a spark to rekindle the spirit of democracy in an age of uncertainty," former President Bill Clinton recognized 20 years of AmeriCorps volunteers at a White House ceremony Friday.
More than 80 AmeriCorps swearing-in ceremonies took place nationwide to mark the national service organization's anniversary, including one at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock attended by Gov. Mike Beebe and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark.
On the South Lawn of the White House, hundreds of AmeriCorps volunteers and alumni cheered the arrival of Clinton and President Barack Obama as a cool breeze cut through the lingering summer humidity.
Funding for the program repeatedly has been targeted by members of Congress as a way to trim the country's budget, but Clinton called creating the program one of the most important things he has ever done.
"To my last day on earth, I will be grateful that I had a chance to start AmeriCorps," he said.
AmeriCorps is operated by the Corporation for National and Community Service and consists of several service programs that pay volunteers subsidies, including Teach for America, City Year and Vista.
AmeriCorps volunteer work includes tutoring, disaster response, rebuilding trails in national parks, and outreach to returning veterans and their families.
This year, 75,000 volunteers will spread across the nation, Obama said.
"Like all those who serve their country through AmeriCorps, they don't just believe in, but live out a fundamental truth, and that is that people who love their country can change it," he said. "That is the genius of America. That is the promise of AmeriCorps. It's one of the reasons I am so committed to this program, and why I'm so hopeful about the future."
Obama said Clinton was an optimist for saying in 1994 that the national service program could change the country.
"Bill, you were right. AmeriCorps has changed the life of our nation. And now it's up to us to make sure it continues," he said.
Arkansas roots
Sherry Middleton, director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services' Community Service and Nonprofit Support Division, said Clinton was already considering a national service program when he was the Arkansas governor, creating a pilot program called the Delta Service Corps in the early 1990s.
"We like to think of Arkansas as the birthplace of national service," Middleton said. "A lot of what AmeriCorps is today was shaped from that demonstration model."
Middleton helped develop the Delta Service Corps, in which volunteers helped tutor children, worked in food pantries, and delivered disaster relief in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
"It was meant to demonstrate what national service would look like," she said. "I am extremely proud of what it has become and what it has accomplished."
Even the program's name has an Arkansas connection.
Skip Rutherford, dean of the Clinton School of Public Service, said Clinton's campaign Chief of Staff Eli Segal used to talk on the campaign trail about creating a national service program. When Clinton won, Segal asked Rutherford and others to brainstorm a name for it.
Rutherford took the request to Boyd Blackwood, then creative director at Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, a Little Rock advertising and public relations firm. Rutherford said he returned and read to Segal a list of potential names.
"When I hit AmeriCorps, he looked at me and his eyes just lit up. He said, 'I like it,"' Rutherford said.
The 20,000 member inaugural AmeriCorps class included at least 289 full-time and part-time Arkansas recruits, news articles at the time reported. Since its creation, more than 900,000 Americans have participated, according to the White House.
Arkansas Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Erin O'Leary said her two stints with AmeriCorps solidified her resolve to work in public service.
Raised in Detroit, O'Leary was assigned to a National Civilian Community Corps team that tackled several projects across the South, including working at a state-run nursing home in Mississippi, rebuilding trails outside of Nashville, Tenn., building homes in Louisiana and cleaning the beach in the Florida Keys. She also led a conservation corps team in Arizona for six months.
"I'm absolutely convinced that when you serve through AmeriCorps it completely changes the trajectory of your life," she said. "AmeriCorps instills in people an ethic of service that leads them throughout their lives to contribute back to their community and to our entire country."
Funding targeted
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., who was appointed to the Arkansas Service Commission in the late 1990s, said that while AmeriCorps volunteers do a lot of good, the country may need to make tough budget decisions.
"It's a wonderful program if you can fund it, but obviously we are struggling right now with our discretionary budget," he said. "In a world where money is no object, that's one of the things you'd like to continue doing, but money is an object."
In his speech, Clinton urged Congress to reconsider its past funding objections.
AmeriCorps' parent agency, the Corporation for National and Community Service, received $1.05 billion in fiscal 2014, which ends Sept. 30. The U.S. House and Senate are considering a resolution to continue funding the government for a few months while they work on next year's budget.
AmeriCorps and other service programs have been possible targets for cuts for years, Womack said.
"I'm sorry for that, but at the end of the day we have to prioritize the needs of our country and our capacity to resource them. I fully expect there will be a day that AmeriCorps will also find some hardship in that budget process," he said. "I know this is a Clinton deal, but ... our country faces some very serious challenges."
Metro on 09/13/2014