Quadsville

I've been waiting to see how President-elect Barack Obama and his team would use all the cell phone numbers they collected during the campaign. During the election, the campaign texted calls for action: vote for me, phone bank for me, come to my event. I wasn't sure call-for-action texts would work once the election was over.

America has its first chance to prove me wrong this weekend.

I sent the SERVE text message and received a reply directing me to USAservice.org. It's a social network launched by the Obama-Biden administration that lets citizens create and sign up to participate in service projects all over the United States. The official kick-off for this national call to service is Monday, Martin Luther King Day, which was declared a national day of community service by Congress in 1994. However, many events have also been organized this weekend, allowing people who have to work on MLK Day to participate.

Here are the search results for events within a 50-mile radius of the Quad-Cities, plotted on a map. There are 17 service projects, ranging from reading to children to painting a domestic violence shelter to collecting items for food pantries.

The Web site states, "Unlike past calls to service, President-elect Obama is calling on all Americans to do more than just offer a single day of service to their cities, towns and neighborhoods. He is asking all of us to make an ongoing commitment to our communities. Never has it been more important to come together in shared purpose to tackle the common challenges we face."

If you register on the site, you will be notified by e-mail about current and future service projects in your area.

Quad-Citians organize service projects year-round, whether they be Girl or Boy Scouts, Lions Club members, Optimists, Rotarians, neighborhood block club leaders, environmentalists or any of the thousands of local citizens already committed to serving their nation and community. What's promising about USAservice.org is that it provides a central location for people to recruit volunteers and for volunteers to find a project that interests them. The site even provides a community service event guide.

I felt proud and inspired when I typed in my zip code and 17 service projects popped up. A national project like this has the potential to change the images of our communities, to inspire us to be less selfish and more concerned about the common good. Do you think Americans will continue to answer these calls to action over the next four years? Will you?