10 Groups of Caring Americans Honored for Making a Difference.

Business & Feature Editors

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 2000

Country Music Star Collin Raye helps USA WEEKEND 

honor outstanding participants in 2 million person event,

nation's largest volunteer day

A 10-year-old child raised money for a cancer treatment center; a homeless man paid back a kindness to a local shelter; and an 8-year-old rallied his community to collect 1,000 toys for flood victims.

These are just three leaders of 10 outstanding volunteer projects who will receive $10,000 grants on Tuesday, April 11, at USA WEEKEND magazine's 9th Annual National Make A Difference Day Awards ceremony.

The award recipients are being honored during National Volunteer Week for their charitable efforts of last Oct. 23. Two million volunteers participated and an estimated 22 million people-in-need benefited from Make A Difference Day--the nation's largest day of volunteerism. A record $2.8 million in donations is being distributed to the charities of thousands of local Make A Difference Day efforts.

USA WEEKEND magazine sponsors the day, held on the fourth Saturday of each October, with its 565 carrier newspapers, in partnership with the Points of Light Foundation.

To help continue their good works, the 10 Make A Difference Day Award recipients will receive grants totaling $100,000 from Paul Newman, who donates all after-tax profits from his food company, Newman's Own, to educational and charitable programs. This is Newman's sixth year of support.

"It's a privilege for Newman's Own to be involved in this program," says Newman. "It's the thousands of people who contribute their time and effort who are the heroes--we just wave the flag."

Collin Raye, a country artist with five platinum albums and 11 #1 singles, will be the keynote speaker for the awards ceremony. "I am proud to applaud the selfless acts of our honorees today as well as the countless other volunteers who stood up and made a difference by improving the lives of others," says Raye. "Their commitment to help their neighbors should encourage all of us to get involved in our own communities."

Raye's own Make A Difference Day project included a concert benefiting Childhelp USA, the oldest child abuse prevention organization in the United States. Raye also hosted a picnic for Nashville schoolchildren who designed posters with the theme, "Fragile, Handle with Care," depicting their views on how children should be treated. The artwork from the winning poster was included in the packaging in his recent family album, "Counting Sheep."

"It is incredible how many men, women and children across the country dedicated their time and efforts to our nation's communities," says Marcia Bullard, President, CEO & Editor of USA WEEKEND magazine. "Each helping hand and kind deed contributed to a groundswell of community activism that truly enriched the lives of others."

In addition to the 10 national volunteer awards, Make A Difference Day donations included $2.6 million in grants provided by Wal-Mart, the retail supporter of Make A Difference Day. Sunsweet Growers also awarded $20,000 to a hall of fame of volunteers and provided $80,000 in support to community projects last fall.

The 10 national award recipients are:

Alpena, Michigan. A 10-year-old cancer patient who raised $615 for a shelter and planned cancer treatment center.

Beckley, West Virginia. An 8-year-old boy who collected $3,200 in new toys for 1,000 young flood victims in North Carolina.

El Paso, Texas. A 65-year-old woman sponsored the building of a two-room house for a single mother in Mexico and also collected toiletries and socks for a shelter--all on foot or by bus.

Henderson, North Carolina. On the spur of the moment, a family helped cut down several 75-foot trees that threatened to fall on an uninsured church and befriended the pastor.

Montgomery, Alabama. 230 Air Force personnel and their families transformed an abandoned estate into a foster home.

Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. 9,700 volunteers countywide, many of them children, took on 142 projects, touching the lives of more than 5,000 needy people.

Raleigh, North Carolina. A 2,800-member congregation raised $50,000 for victims of Hurricane Floyd.

Sparks, Nevada. Three children sold 500 hand-painted rocks to raise $1,000 for lupus, a disease one of their mothers has.

Tulsa, Oklahoma. A homeless musician held a benefit concert to raise more than $1,000 to repay the kindness of a local shelter that once gave him a $25 box of food.

Nationwide. In 97 Job Corps centers in 44 states, 7,000 at-risk Job Corps students ages 16-24 participated in a range of community improvements.

The 10th Make a Difference Day is Oct. 28th. Again, $2.8 million in charitable awards will be given to thousands of local volunteer efforts through donations from Wal-Mart and Paul Newman.

USA Weekend, a weekly magazine published by Gannett Co. Inc., has nearly 45 million readers and appears in 565 newspapers across the country. It is available on the Web at www.usaweekend.com.

The Points of Light Foundation is the nation's leading organization for volunteering and is dedicated to engaging people more effectively in community service to help solve serious social problems. The Foundation works in partnership with the nationwide network of Volunteer Centers, the nation's primary local leadership and resource organizations for volunteering. For more information, visit the Foundation's Web site at www.pointsoflight.org. To get connected to local volunteer opportunities any time of the year, call 1-800-VOLUNTEER, provided by Points of Light Foundation and the national network of Volunteer Centers.