I was very fortunate to be asked to speak at the AmeriCorps' "Voices for AmeriCorps: Strengthening America" event at the U.S. Congress. It was very refreshing to be around these people who are now running this great organization - they reminded me of my team from the Denver NCCC.

8 Feb. 2005, Washington, D.C.

To the Members of Congress and fellow friends of the AmeriCorps, thank you so much for letting me come here and speak today about this corps we care so deeply for. It is an honor for me to be among all of you here. And you honor the men and women of the AmeriCorps through your work for them here in the halls of Congress. I can’t come up in front of you without singling out Senator Tom Harkin and Senator Charles Grassley. They are such good friends to Iowa, and great servants to the country. And we also need to thank the people of the Clinton and Bush adminstrations, who saw and are seeing this process through – to put corpsmembers on the ground where they’re needed and who made and who are making these ideas, real.

          My name is Peter McRoberts; in 1994, I left my home of Iowa, to join the first class of an AmeriCorps that was barely off the ground. Our National Civilian Community Corps met for the first time in Denver, Colorado, and upon our arrival and initial meeting as corpsmembers, we were promised a life-changing experience. We were assured that this corps would earn its place among the great enterprises of the country - provided we did things right. I believe today - perhaps even more so than I did at the time, now that a few years have passed - that the work of people like General Donald Scott and Colonel Jules Hampton - among so many others - was indeed, and continues to be, done right.

          So, to the people here and across the country; to Members of Congress who have supported this - who created this corps, and the work of its members, I can only offer the thanks of a grateful country. And I will ask you to keep that support alive. For every corpsmember going off to spend a year working in communities all over the country, there are members coming -home- at the end of their term; coming home with the lessons and the heart that come, with this good work. And they won't keep quiet about it; by no sense of the word, will they keep quiet! They will talk about their time in the corps to their colleagues and friends. They will work with Habitat and with the Salvation Army and they will get involved in politics. They will teach their neighbors about the national service movement and they are our leaders.

And it’s because of this, that I appreciate the chance to speak to the assembled supporters of the AmeriCorps, and I will say that it is our time to shine a light on the people of today’s AmeriCorps, who have, in its brief history, seen their corps change - who have indeed been the agents of that change and development - from the organization that I was a part of, into the corps we recognize today. Specifically, I want to honor the former members; who joined the same corps I did, but who, as a result of the events that changed the country, ended up instead as first responders; and alongside firefighters, and military personnel, and the Red Cross, in the wake of 9/11. They joined their corps to shape lives. Which they did. And then they saved lives. These members represent so much good, to so many people, and we should lift them up!

When we ask members of this good AmeriCorps to serve, they respond, by showing us what is in their nature. What is in their spirit. The corpsmembers respond, knowing that their burdens might be great, because the needs of the country are great. But they give their time and they give their labor and they give their love, because they understand, that when any American is asked to serve; then every American, must serve.

This is a spirit we recognize from our earliest days as Americans. We see this spirit and this heart in Soldiers and US Marines. We see it in police officers and teachers and in the Peace Corps and in the fire houses. And we see this now in our AmeriCorps. We see this among the men and women who work in the communities they love, as they show to us, as they prove to us, what we've known all along, that to be a strong, and safe America is to be a hopeful America. That is our way.

We see this spirit in the men and women here today, who are giving guidance and support – moral support and political support - to the AmeriCorps, the people who took this idea, of youth service, and gave it to the country, gave it faith, and gave it life. We can ensure that the work these men and women do each day, remains a part of the story we tell. It is the best, and most decent obligation we have, to keep this alive, and to make it grow.

I was a member of this corps, and a proud member of this corps, in a quieter time for our country. My colleagues and I, who would become close friends, are tied together, for life. Every one of us who was there at the inception of the AmeriCorps, came to see it as more than simply the sum of its component parts. It is as true today as it was then. And that reminds me of our own work; the little boys and girls who we tutored and mentored, are now young men and women. And I would not at all be surprised to see any number of them as members of this corps now!

Yes - in 2001, this corps changed, in the shadow of our tragedy. I can only imagine the young idealists - my friends and I were among them during our own time as corpsmembers - understanding so quickly that their work had become something different, than what they had joined to do. And so these men and women had to adapt. This is the inherent value of the corps, I have come to believe, this fact, that it changes. These men and women went from Neighborhood Watch one day, to Homeland Security the next, and they are still moving, still growing.

It is a way of thought, perhaps best personified by the 19 and 20 and 21 year olds, who take their curiosity and their want to do good work, and who then find themselves as examples for all the rest of us -- what happens when these people are tested? They show through their actions, the hope of the country. They become a shining light. Like the best of this country that they are, they become a shining light.

          So - let me end this by suggesting, that where good people congregate in our country, there are Voices for AmeriCorps. When those who work every day in the halls of government show their courage, and take a chance on something that can make the country better, we hear voices for AmeriCorps. When our young people leave their homes for a year to make us safer and stronger, this is the Voice, and the action of AmeriCorps. And it belongs to all of us. Thank you all so very much for all you do and all your great support. It is noted, it is appreciated, and you have the thanks of a nation. God bless you.