Hellllllllo from New York!

Daniel Parr here, SCA alumnus extraordinaire and your on-the-scene correspondent for Service Nation!

Tomorrow is the first of the two big summit days here in Manhattan, and there’s no time to waste! MyGoodDeed.org has put together a terrific service project at a public elementary school in Chinatown, and volunteers will be helping revitalize the school’s library, paint a few murals, and read books with the students! I’m looking forward to being a part of it, and telling you all about it afterwards

(Times Square! Just like on TV!)

After that, I’ll be headed up to Columbia University to hear the 2008 Presidential Candidates John McCain and Barack Obama speak about the importance of volunteer service in the 21st century. This is a nationally-televised event, so check your local listings. Submit a question for the candidates here, and you might get an answer on live TV!

Now I don’t want to get all preachy on you, but before you hear it from the Candidates tomorrow, I can assure you that service - of any kind - is absolutely vital to our communities and our country. That’s why the SCA has been providing opportunities for young people to serve for over 50 years! Whether by building bridges in the backcountry or lending a hand in our cities, our volunteers are making a real, positive impact on our world.

…But there’s always more to be done. So whether you volunteer for a day with ServiceNation on the 27th, or intern for a year with the SCA, your effort is going to shape you and the world around you. Like Dr. King said: “Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.”

I’m excited to be here in this absolutely tremendous city for this great event, and I hope you’ll keep checking back – I’ll keep writing!

(Central Park! Proof that not all self-portraits are bad.)

Until next time…

The Summer 2008 season is quickly approaching. Check out our Staff Picked positions that have immediate openings or browse all of our Environmental Internships.

Nate Tyler wants to invite you to “the dark side.”

Tyler, an SCA alum and one-time Google spokesperson, is taking on global warming with Lights Out San Francisco, a grassroots campaign to get locals to turn off their lights between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 20. Landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the TransAmerica Tower have all agreed to pull the plug.

Will Lights Out suddenly halt melting glaciers and put Al Gore out of business? Of course not. But the energy savings and reduced emissions, however minor, will be real and the message sent by those darkened SF icons should be heard loud and clear.

In fact, Los Angeles is already listening. The city plans to turn the lights off the fabled Hollywood sign, and the response from around the US has already prompted Tyler to schedule Lights Out America for March 29, 2008.

It’s always good to see SCA alums still fighting the good fight. Nate, a Connecticut native, says his mid-80s SCA hitch at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California opened his eyes to just how large the country is. If his Lights Out campaign catches on and helps thwart rising oceans that would otherwise consume at-risk coastal regions, our nation might just remain as big as he remembers it.

Janisse Ray is a writer and naturalist born in Baxley, Georgia, who has graciously agreed to write for our blog. Her book, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, recounts growing up in a junkyard, the daughter of a poor, white, fundamentalist family, and her latest book, Pinhook, Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land, tells the story of the land that connects the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and Osceola National Forest in Florida.

Open Letter to U.S. Senators and Representatives
by Janisse Ray
Carbon emissions have already increased global temperatures by over 1 degree Fahrenheit. We are seeing dramatic results.

Our planet, due to rising levels of atmospheric CO2, methane, and other greenhouse gases, is experiencing:

• thawing permafrost
• melting glaciers
• melting sea ice
• rising sea levels
• an increase in hurricane intensity
• shifts in drought and rainfall
• changes in migration patterns of insects and animals.

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