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Have you ever felt like you were witnessing history? That thrill that you are a part of something important, something larger than yourself. That’s how I felt last week at the ServiceNation Summit. Organized by City Year, Be the Change, Civic Enterprises, and Points of Light Institute, ServiceNation is a coalition of 110 organizations that has a collective reach of some 100 million Americans and is dedicated to strengthening our democracy and solving problems through civic engagement and service. The coalition is organizing a year-long campaign to promote a major expansion of service opportunities in America.

The summit kicked off on September 11th in New York City with a televised Presidential Forum on Service, co-moderated by TIME magazine’s Managing Editor Rick Stengel and PBS NewsHour Senior Correspondent and Political Editor Judy Woodruff. Presidential candidates, Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama participated and shared their visions for the role of service in America. Approximately 8 million Americans tuned in. Both this level of public interest and the attendance of the presidential candidates in the heat of a tough election campaign signal that it is an important time for the national service movement.

The following day, more than 600 participants convened to discuss ways in which service can be expanded to solve major problems facing our country. Speakers included Mayor Michael Bloomberg, First Lady Laura Bush, Senator Hillary Clinton, Caroline Kennedy, Martin Luther King III, and New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein.  

Later this month, on September 27th, ServiceNation will convene a national Day of Action, with hundreds of events across America celebrating the power and potential of citizen service.  The goal of the National Day of Action is for thousands of Americans to express their support for a dramatic expansion of service by organizing events throughout the day – service events, advocacy and educational events, among others. More than 1,600 events spanning all 50 states have already been organized.  Additional information on ServiceNation and the events mentioned above can be found at http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation.