Obama greets DC volunteers
Posted: Monday, January 19, 2009 3:45 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC’s Athena Jones
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Obama's third stop during his Inauguration Eve day of service was a high school gym in northwest Washington, where he and his wife spent about 40 minutes shaking hands and posing for pictures with some 300 volunteers.
Vice President-elect Biden also stopped by Calvin Coolidge High School to greet college and military families who gathered here to write letters, record video messages, make bookmarks and decorate blankets for the troops. Biden came and went about an hour before the Obamas arrived.
The project at the high school was one of more than 11,000 set up today through the USAservice.org -- an organization the Obama team launched and which Obama made a pitch for during his brief remarks.
The president-elect thanked the volunteers, telling them he hoped that today they had been "sufficiently inspired" and had enough fun to continue to find ways to serve their community not just on the day that honors Martin Luther King, Jr., but every day.
"On a day where we remember not just a dreamer,” he told the crowd, “but a doer, an actor, somebody who dedicated his life to working at the grassroots level, on behalf of change, on behalf of making communities better, on behalf of bringing about justice and equality, it is fitting that all of you, and hundreds of thousands, maybe more than a million people, through 11,000 service projects all across the country, today commemorated Dr. King and got involved in this process of remaking America."
Obama has said that bold action is required to help address the country's economic woes and today, he stuck to the themes of action and responsibility, saying that government can only do so much; people have to get involved.
"If we're just waiting around for somebody else to do it for us, if we're waiting around for somebody else to clean up the vacant lot or waiting for somebody else to get involved in tutoring a child, if we're waiting for somebody else to do something, it never gets done," he said. "We're going to have to take responsibility -- all of us."
Loren Stevens, a high school senior and the captain of the Colts cheerleading squad, which performed a cheer for the soon-to-be first family, spoke excitedly after their visit.
"I was really shocked. I was numb. I'm still kind of numb," Stevens said, as volunteers lined up for donated lunches. "It was just a dream come true. I could not believe it. I would've never thought that I would've got a chance to meet the president of the United States."
An older couple, who had worked on the campaign and whose granddaughter Jedi was among the children Obama spoke with, said they believed that as president he would continue to inspire service.
"This is so exciting,” David Scott said, “and to me it is very special because having not only worked for him, I also was at Martin Luther King's March on Washington 45 years ago, so it's just beyond words. We're just so happy and so hopeful."
David's wife Judy said that at a time of economic turmoil, it was important for people to volunteer.
"I think there's so much excitement in this country right now," she said. "I think volunteering makes you feel good."
