Make A Difference Day

Learn more about Make A Difference Day 2009!

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General Information

Make A Difference Day is one of the most widely observed national days of helping – a celebration of neighbors helping neighbors in which everyone can participate.

Created by USA Weekend Magazine, Make A Difference Day is an annual event observed on the fourth Saturday of October.

The goal of Make A Difference Day is to inspire and encourage local residents to participate in community service projects. Large or small, as individuals or in groups, one-day or ongoing – the nature of the service isn’t as important as simply giving your time, effort, resources, skills or support to make a difference in the lives of people in your community.

To find a project in your area or to register your project, visit the USA Weekend's Make A Difference Day Web site. The site has tons of helpful information, including an Idea Generator to help you find a project idea to use in your community. After Make A Difference Day, you can enter your community project to be considered for an award.

The KCCVS officers, staff and program members encourage you to be a part of Make A Difference Day, whether on your own, through a local community service agency or project or with us.

Everyone can Make A Difference!

KCCVS Activities

The KCCVS traditionally sponsors a campaign to collect as much canned beef stew, canned goods and other non-perishable food as possible as part of its Make A Difference Day observance. Collected food is donated to food pantries and emergency feeding centers in the communities where the food is collected.

KCCVS hosts one beef stew/food drive involving our Kentucky AmeriCorps programs and another among Cabinet for Health and Family Services's community-based service regions.

Not only will the winning program and region earn bragging rights for a year, but they will receive the special Make A Difference Day Traveling Award, which remains with the winner for one year and travels to reside with each consecutive winner. If a program or region wins the award three consecutive years, it is theirs to keep. The award is presented in the spring at the annual Governor’s Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service. THIS IS A NAMED ANCHOR

2008 Food Drive Competition Results

71 tons of food was collected and distributed to local food pantries and emergency feeding centers - enough food to feed 283,880 Kentuckians (8 oz. serving). If all 283,880 Kentuckians were standing in line for their serving of food, that line would be more than 100 miles long!

Make A Difference Day 2008 Visual

Make A Difference Day 2008 Details

Use the charts below to see the breakdown by program or region. Also included in the total is 22,602 ounces collected by AmeriCorps members at the 2008 Kentucky AmeriCorps Launch and 5,319.34 ounces collected by the Bluegrass Community Action Senior Companion Program.

AmeriCorps Programs

#	Program Name	Number of Ounces	Number of Members	Ounces Per Member	Number of Servings (8 oz.)
1	MSU Corps	878,739.00	31	28,346.42	109,842.38
2	The Learning Corps	841,158.00	49	17,166.49	105,144.75
3	FRYSC Corps	186,806.00	25	7,472.24	23,350.75
4	SUCCESS Corps	105,587.14	17	6,211.01	13,198.39
5	SERV Corps	124,088.00	30	4,136.27	15,511.00
6	Homeland Security Corps/Senior Connections	2,411.00	29	83.14	301.38
	Every 1 Reads AmeriCorps Program	0.00*
	Getting Things Done for Kentucky's Homeless	0.00
	Louisville Metro AmeriCorps Program	0.00
	Prevent. Prepare. Respond.	0.00
	UNITE Service Corps	0.00
		2,138,789.14			267,348.64

*The Every 1 Reads AmeriCorps Program collected 30,200 ounces, however their report was turned in after the reporting deadline, so it is not included in the total.

Thanks to the efforts of the participating programs, area food banks will be able to feed more than 267,000 Kentuckians (based on an 8-oz. serving). The Kentucky AmeriCorps programs collected 2.1 million ounces - almost 67 tons!

Community Based Service Regions

#	Region Name	Number of Employees	Number of Ounces	Ounces Per Employee
1	Eastern Mountain Service Region	496	64,777.61	130.60
2	Two Rivers Service Region	489	22,496.65	46.01
3	The Lakes Service Region	368	6,312.20	17.15
4	Northern Bluegrass Service Region	356	5,026.10	14.12
5	Cumberland Service Region	505	5,719.90	11.33
	Northeastern Service Region		0	0
	Jefferson Service Region		0	0
	Salt River Trail Service Region		0	0
	Southern Bluegrass Service Region		0	0
			104,332.46

Thanks to the efforts of the participating regions, area food banks will be able to feed more than 13,000 Kentuckians (based on an 8 oz. serving).

Other Make A Difference Day Activities

Kentucky AmeriCorps programs also participated in various service projects in their areas. For example, 2 members of the SUCCESS Corp collaborated with members of MSU Corps to send care packages to soldiers. Members of the MSU Corps also participated in various other projects such as coat and clothing drives. Learn more about MSU Corps participation.

Traveling Award Winners