By Greg Tucker

Sure, you probably will be watching The Big Game this weekend, but before you lose yourself into spectacle surrounding America’s most-popular unofficial holiday, consider these Super Sunday connections to service. (Warning: GIF party ahead.)

Super First Family Does Coin Flip

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Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara are scheduled to perform the coin toss before the Patriots and Falcons square off on the gridiron. The 41st president is a great friend and supporter of national service and volunteering, signing the 1990 National and Community Service Act that created the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). During his presidency, President Bush began a movement to recognize citizens for exemplary service as “Points of Light,” which continues to this day through the eponymous nonprofit organization based in Atlanta.

The Home of Service Superstars

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The two cities involved in the title game are close to our hearts for more than their athletic pursuits, they also host two of our most well-known partners in service.

Atlanta hosts the headquarters of Habitat for Humanity, the global initiative that creates affordable housing in the United States and around the world. Habitat’s volunteers also perform neighborhood revitalization services, join disaster response efforts, and has helped more than 9.8 million people create places they can call home since 1976.

Boston, often referred to as the Silicon Valley of service, is the home of City Year, a longtime AmeriCorps grantee that has been making an impact in our nation’s schools for more than 20 years. City Year currently has programs in 28 cities around the U.S. and plays a major role in improving educational outcomes and graduation rates in underserved communities.  

We Serve Super Communities

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CNCS is committed to serving communities across the nation through national service and volunteering, helping them solve some of our country’s greatest challenges. This year, CNCS will provide nearly $70 million in funds to support more than 12,000 national service members and volunteers serving at over 2,200 locations across Georgia and Massachusetts. Our AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and programs supporting volunteering and service improve education, protect the environment, provide disaster services, open doors to economic opportunity, create healthy futures, and support our veterans and military families. You might even say we have “The Right Stuff.”

Service Creates Super Opportunities

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For more than 20 years, our AmeriCorps members have been making an impact that has touched every state in the nation. This group of young Americans – 1 million strong and growing – have earned over $3.1 billion in Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards that can be used to continue their education or pay back eligible student loans. Since 1994, more than 33,000 Massachusetts residents have served 45 million hours, earning more than $109.3 million in education awards. More than 19,000 Georgia residents have served more than 27 million hours to earn over $59.3 million for their college expenses.

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Volunteering is a Super Way to Connect

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Each year CNCS measures the impact of national service on Cities and states (and vice versa) in several ways. Our most recent Volunteering and Civic Life in America study found the Boston and Atlanta in close proximity for volunteering rates at 25.1% and 24% – hovering around the national average volunteering rate of 24.9%.  But Boston and Massachusetts took the prize in our Top 10 AmeriCities and AmeriStates list, coming in at 4th and 9th respectively, for contributing the most AmeriCorps members per capita to this national service program.

But numbers only tell half the story. Unlike the game, where the trophy will go home with the Falcons or Patriots, we all win when service is the name of the game.

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