Here's one area where Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has been focused, persistent and effective: encouraging volunteerism.
He set a goal in March of making Sacramento the nation's leading city for volunteerism. He repeated that goal again on Tuesday – and announced progress.
He's done public service announcements. He's gone to meetings of Sacramento's corporate volunteer council to tell businesses that employee volunteering programs are important. He's out telling kids that service is important.
He is convincing because he has lived a service ethic himself. Giving back to the community is in Johnson's core. And, as Kathy Chow of Hands On Sacramento has said, this "drives people to step it up."
The mayor also understands the power of "the ask." People are more likely to volunteer if they're asked. So he's asking every resident to donate 10 hours each year. And Volunteer Sacramento provides an easy way to people to find opportunities and log hours (see www.volunteersac.com).
With the Obama family encouraging community service, young people especially have gotten excited about volunteerism. College students in our region volunteer at rates well above the national average.
Currently, 26 percent of those ages 16 and over in the Sacramento metropolitan area volunteer, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service. The top-ranked metropolitan area in the nation is Minneapolis-St. Paul, with more than 39 percent volunteering. In California, the Sacramento metropolitan area is behind San Francisco, San Diego and San Jose.
So the goal of reaching No. 1 is a stretch goal. Beyond "the ask," Johnson understands that you need to recognize people who serve. On Tuesday, he recognized 95-year-old Raynia Kinniston, who has logged 45,000 hours of service since 1960.
She's a great recruiter, too: "I wish that anyone who has any spare time, I would say volunteer," she said. Keep on asking and Sacramento can get to No. 1 in the nation.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.