Fifteen years ago today I sat in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia at the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future. This event, Chaired by General Colin Powell, along with Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, with Nancy Regan, came together as a call to action to get more Americans engaged in their communities to help solve some of our most serious social issues with a focus on youth. Delegates from business, nonprofits, governments, community associations and educators met by issue areas, geographic locations, constituencies and in total to develop plans of action. At Disney, we pledged one million magical hours of service and established a national partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America connecting individual clubs with Disney Store locations. Convened by the Points of Light Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service, a new organization was born out of the summit… America’s Promise Alliance. The summit was the dream of the late Governor George Romney of Michigan. Governor Romney was the CEO of American Motors and was chair of the National Volunteer Center, the predecessor organization to Points of Light. Unfortunately Governor Romney did not live to see the summit. It was an amazing event of bipartisan support for one of our country’s strongest virtues and that is volunteering. We have continually seen this bipartisan support up through the last presidential election when then Senators McCain and Obama suspended campaigning, pledged their support for the Serve America Act and embraced on stage at Service Nation. Somehow we have lost that spirit of bipartisanship around something that should be celebrated by all and we are fighting for the survival of AmeriCorps and other national service programs. As we have seen time and time again by Presidents and other statesmen, volunteering is part of our fabric and makes us strong. We need to rekindle the sprit that permeated the Summit, and the nation, 15 years ago. We can’t afford not to come together to work for the betterment of our communities. The future of the nation depends on it. www.pointsoflight.org www.americaspromise.org www.nationalservice.gov