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Hank Roraback remembers watching video footage of President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, doing volunteer work during and after his presidency.
It made an impact on Roraback, and he said he is sure that it affected others, too.
"You would see them out there doing stuff in the community, and they would be hammering nails," he said. "By default, the office of the presidency is something pe-ople hold in high regard. If the president is saying this is a good thing, people can't help but be impressed and they will turn around and do it, too."
So seeing a president promote volunteerism is an especially good thing for Rora-back, who is president of the United Way of the Brazos Valley and relies on the help of volunteers.
On Friday, two presidents will be in College Station to speak about the value of volunteerism and community service.
The Points of Light Institute's Presidential For-um on Service will take place at Rudder Auditorium at
4 p.m. It will feature speeches by President Barack Obama and Bush, as well as a panel discussion on the subject.
Organizers said it will also be a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Bush's Points of Light Initiative, which was an effort he spearheaded to promote and support volunteerism among U.S. citizens.
Bush introduced the idea of U.S. volunteers as being "a thousand points of light" in his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination for president in 1988.
He established the Daily Point of Light Award during his first year in office, and the Points of Light Foundation was created in 1990 as a response to his call to action.
Bush's work with the Points of Light Institute is especially evident in Bryan-College Station. Eleven residents or organizations have received Points of Light Awards over the past two decades.
"The speech began to put forth a vision of how Americans should engage each other and how a president should intentionally go about encouraging people and make sure we have a nation where the service to do to others is important," said Pat Chandler, chief officer of external affairs for the Points of Light Foundation.
Bush pushed for the federal government to support programs that encouraged volunteerism, an issue that all presidents who have served after him have continued to promote, she said.
"The service movement in America today is experiencing a moment of transcendence driven by demographics, demand and idealism," said
C. Gregg Petersmeyer, former assistant to Bush and director of the White House Office of National Service, in a report released in advance of Friday's forum.
In the past two decades, volunteerism has doubled among teens and 45- to 65-year-olds, he noted. Businesses regularly support their employees' volunteer work; high school and college service learning has become widespread; and volunteer work among the elderly has jumped 50 percent, Petersmeyer wrote.
"Our goal is to celebrate that and look at the next 20 years and how it will continue to shape," Chandler said.
Organizers will celebrate steps that every president has made. Bill Clinton oversaw
the creation of AmeriCorps, George W. Bush helped create USA Freedom Corps and Obama signed into law the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, organizers note.
"President Obama is coming here, and at the same time he is also carrying a force and looking at his administration just the same way President Bush did," Chandler said.
