This April, the Central Park Recreation Center in Atlanta was uninhabited and in disarray. Light fixtures were hanging from the ceiling, the Center had a stale smell, and brown water trickled from the faucets. Now, thanks to a partnership between Operation REACH's Gulfsouth Youth Action Corps and the City of Atlanta, the Center has reopened its doors to the community. Gulfsouth Youth Action Corps (GYAC) AmeriCorps Members began their summer of service preparing for the six week intensive youth leadership and service learning summer camp they staff.

The Gulfsouth Summer Youth Action Camp (GSYAC) engages rising 6th through 9th graders in a variety of service-learning activities that addressed real community needs in the area of disaster preparedness and the environment. Over the summer, the camp engaged more than 300 youth in meaningful service learning activities in Atlanta, Birmingham and New Orleans, including community beautification, gardening, and painting. “The long term goal is that after the program, youth will continue to be involved in their communities.” said New Orleans Corps Member, Stephen Stone.

The program was originally launched in the summer of 2006 to help reopen recreation centers and restore youth programs in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. These camps provided outlets for youth to discuss their experiences with Hurricane Katrina and have their voices be heard in the rebuilding of their communities. With the support of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Gulfsouth Youth Action Corps and Summer Youth Action Camps have since expanded across the South.

Atlanta's 2010 summer camp was held at the previously closed Central Park Recreation Center. The Center had been closed for 18 months prior to the start of the summer camp in June because of budget cuts. "A lot of work was involved in the re-opening of the Recreation Center and developing the camp this summer," said Atlanta Corps Member, Cherona Levy. "But, all the hard work paid off after seeing the completed service projects the students accomplished."

Among the service projects completed by the campers was a mural covering the exterior wall of the Central Park Recreation Center. "We are extremely thrilled that the GYAC members were able to provide a quality experience to the youth in the Old Fourth Ward." said Director of the Atlanta Office of Recreation, Charlene Braud. "Their dedication and commitment to service in this community has made a tremendous difference. Operation Reach, Inc. and the GYAC members are partners who care and made a lasting impression and a big difference in a little time. The partnership was a wonderful way to reopen the recreation center in this community."

The 2010 Gulfsouth Summer Youth Action Camp was made possible through funding from Learn and Serve America’s Summer of Service and AmeriCorps. Operation REACH, Inc. (ORI) is a national organization that engages, empowers, and inspires children, youth and families through innovative community-based learning opportunities. ORI is also one of the only Louisiana-born AmeriCorps organizations to receive funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service for national expansion.

Youth Service America and UnitedHealth Group are tackling childhood obesity from a new direction: by asking children and youth across America to take action and address this critical issue. The UnitedHealth HEROES Service-Learning Grants, launched two years ago to support youth-led programs, have supported the initiatives of more than 360 schools and community organizations. Asking young people to have a meaningful impact on communities by implementing innovative ideas is an important part of service-learning, a teaching and learning strategy that makes connections between community service and curriculum.
 

It’s time for us to rally around our parks and playgrounds. Every child has the right to a safe, well-maintained, inspiring place to play, and with a little elbow grease and community energy, we can improve our play spaces, strengthen our neighborhoods, and ensure the happiness and health of our children. A simple enhancement project can go a long way.
 

Childhood obesity is a growing, yet often overlooked issue within Hispanic households. Families, including my own, often dismiss childhood obesity with terms like “gordito” or “llenito,” to overlook the fact that a child might be overweight.
 

This post is a special guest blog post by a staff member at the Corporation for National and Community Service. While on a family vacaction abroad, Stu and his family took a little time to do a service project involving gleaning. This past May I traveled to Israel for an extended family Bar Mitzvah celebration. June, my wife, and 14 other family members and I participated in a Leket project. Leket is the Hebrew word meaning to glean, a practice documented in scriptures dating back thousands of years. Leket, also known as Table to Table, is Israel’s largest charitable “food rescue” and “food bank” organization.
 

According to a 2009 study, more than 40 million American grow fruit, herbs and vegetables in home gardens – and that number is increasing. These gardeners, given good soil, access to water, lots of sun, and a little bit of luck, typically wait for months for their crops to start bearing fruit. Once they start the harvest, they use, preserve and share the bounty... but the squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, and other fruits and vegetables keep on coming, and from personal experience, I can tell you that there are only so many cucumbers you can give to friends if you still want them call you a friend. While some gardeners compost the excess produce, many others simply let it rot in the garden or worse, throw it into the trash.
 

In the past few months, a 50 x 50 ft. organic community garden in Ames, IA called the Service Patch has hosted over 567 volunteers donating nearly 800 volunteer hours and 230 pounds of food to Iowa food pantries and shelters.
 

People across the nation are reading and moving this summer. Following the lead of United We Serve and the First Lady, Americans are dedicating themselves to becoming active and engaged mentally and physically. Some are joining and creating summer learning programs, others are getting involved in summer sports activities, and many are planting and growing gardens.
 

United We Serve: Let’s Read. Let’s Move. is thrilled to be collaborating with CHEFs for Schools in the effort to combat childhood obesity! Created to address the growing problems of obesity, malnutrition and poverty in New York City, Cheap Healthy Eco-friendly Food (CHEFs) for Schools works to increase awareness of proper nutrition, meal preparation, and environmental consciousness in New York youth.
 

We challenged YOU to get moving this summer and to take the Let’s Read. Let’s Move. Summer Fitness Challenge - it’s not too late to sign up! Why not use the remaining days of sunny weather as an opportunity to challenge yourself and the kids in your life physically?
 

Last week CNCS CEO Patrick Corvington joined President Obama to honor thirteen outstanding Americans from across the country who have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens” with a 2010 Presidential Citizens Medal. All of the recipients are remarkable; living examples of the importance of service in addressing our nation’s most pressing challenges. Today, on Serve.gov, we wanted to highlight the work of one Presidential Citizens Medal recipient in particular who has dedicated his time to honor those who have served our nation.
 

One Hen, Inc. is an innovative organization that helps children to become global citizens by equipping teachers with interactive resources that teach elementary school children about world issues and how they can make a difference. This summer, One Hen is teaming up with United We Serve: Let’s Read. Let’s Move to encourage summer reading and take on the problem of access to healthy and affordable food!
 

Having the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints here at the White House this morning, there was a sense of hope and almost lightheartedness – nobody forgot that Louisiana is still in the midst of yet another tragedy, but it was reminder that New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast has seen the worst before and come out fighting.
 

United We Serve: Let’s Read. Let’s Move. is excited to be working with Family-to-Family in the effort to increase access to healthy and affordable food and promote literacy this summer.
 

Summer Advantage USA is celebrating a successful summer of activity, encouraging over 3000 children in grades K-8 to replace lazy summer days with:
 

Imagine a young Soldier in Afghanistan walking into a tent, dropping his gear, and picking up a copy of Green Eggs and Ham to read to his daughter at home. Imagine, back home in base housing, his wife and daughter sit down to watch Daddy read a bedtime story from the other side of the world. At that moment, Daddy is home.
 

CNCS CEO Patrick Corvington joined more than 2,100 college students in Chicago who gathered this past weekend to help bring change to the city’s Englewood neighborhood. The student volunteers were in Chicago for the 2010 International Campus Ministry Conference hosted by the International Churches of Christ. They met with fellow leaders, attended conferences classes and joined with HOPE worldwide in a Day of Service.
 

The key to stopping summer learning loss is reading. If a child reads a minimum of five books between June and August, [he] will be on track for success next school year. We need every child to read at least five books this summer and every adult to help,” Secretary Arne Duncan noted earlier this summer at the launch of the U.S. Department of Education’s “Lets Read. Let’s Move.” enrichment series. Today, five special guests demonstrated the importance of literacy and how simple it can be to meet Secretary Duncan’s challenge by reading five books to local children on the Department’s outdoor plaza
 

Today, President Barack Obama and Patrick Corvington will announce the recipients of the 2010 Presidential Citizens Medal – and you can watch it live from the White House website.
 

When a youth sports coach says ‘run’, kids run. That’s because kids respect and listen to their coaches. That led us to a simple idea: when a coach says read, youth will do just that this summer.
 

This summer, ARAMARK launched a community summer of service initiative focused around family health and wellness. ARAMARK, an international corporation that provides professional services, food services, facilities management, and uniform and career apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, and businesses around the world, has embraced community service and volunteerism as a mean of encouraging healthy lifestyles and build healthy communities.
 

Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter believes in the power of service to address real community needs. “As summer school and many other summer opportunities draw to a close at the end of July, it is more important than ever to leverage volunteers in ways that meet the academic, social and physical needs of our young people straight through to the first day of school,” said Mayor Nutter in the days leading up to the launch of Philadelphia’s first ever summer service challenge.
 

Earlier this week, Philadelphia kicked off their Let's Read. Let's Move. Philadelphia initiative. Leading the way is Chief Service Officer, Catherine Wolfgang - Philly is one of 10 Cities of Service with a Chief Service Officer. The Rockefeller Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies have given grants to ten cities whose mayors have committed to increase the amount and impact of service in their communities.
 

On Saturday, May 8th, 2010, a group of veterans and other volunteers arrived at 21 acres to prepare a Veteran Pea Patch for planting. 21 acres is a non-profit, dedicated to assisting the Woodinville, Washington community and surrounding areas in providing pea patches for local citizens and larger sites for groups that have a constituency.
 

Girls on the Run of Northern Virginia is a part of an international organization dedicated to educating and preparing girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living through running. Girls on the Run offers a curriculum-based youth development program for girls in grades 3-8. The curriculum is delivered in 10-week sessions by trained volunteer coaches and culminates in a celebratory 5K running event.
 

This summer, the President and First Lady launched United We Serve: Let’s Read, Let’s Move – a national call to use service as a tool to promote physical activity, healthy eating and to prevent the loss of academic learning during the summer months. This call to service encourages Americans to help fight something called the “summer reading gap” - where kids who don’t read during the summer can lose months of educational progress. And in her remarks, the First Lady emphasized the need for collaboration to make this summer a success:
 

Mrs. Marian Robinson, mother of First Lady Michelle Obama, and over 100 local students from Columbia Heights Youth Club’s Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program, the Alexandria Happy Home Child Learning Center and the D.C. Bilingual Public Charter School joined Secretary Arne Duncan at the Department of Education for the fourth installment of the Department’s “Let’s Read. Let’s Move.” summer enrichment series.
 

On Friday, U.S. Congressman Joe Courtney (2nd District – Connecticut) stopped by to visit a program that is carrying out the mission and goals of United We Serve Let’s Read. Let’s Move. Camp Rotary is a five-week summer program for middle school students in New London, Connecticut. The camp is made possible by a unique partnership between the Connecticut College Office of Volunteers for Community Service, New London Public Schools, the Rotary Club of New London, and the Corporation for National and Community Service.
 

United We Serve: Let’s Read. Let’s Move, is happy to be working with Meals on Wheels in an effort to ensure access to healthy and affordable food for all Americans, young and old.
 

The Obama Administration is committed to taking care of our troops, military families and veterans and this week the White House honored the military and their families for all their hard work in service to our nation. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill spent the Fourth of July in Iraq with American soldiers. While there, they participated in a naturalization ceremony for more than 150 servicemen and servicewomen who became U.S. citizens while stationed in the Middle East. Dr. Jill Biden later shared lunch with U.S. servicewomen at Camp Victory and listened to soldiers there, saluting them for "managing all the challenges of parenting -- securing health care, child care and education -- while one or both parents are away."