Mr. Coons. I rise to mark national volunteer week and Delaware volunteer week. Americans and Delawareans will be engaged in volunteer services. Volunteer opportunities include helping the homeless, tending to the environment and working to keep our communities safer and stronger and free from fires and accidents and injuries.
Here in the Senate, one can't talk community service or national service or volunteerism without thanking and recognizing our colleague, Senator Barbara Mikulski from my neighboring State of Maryland. She has been a leader for years on volunteerism, most of them alongside the late Senator Ted Kennedy, and I am proud to be working with her fight to save our national service programs.
When Delaware's tireless governor was sworn into office in 2009, he decided to forgo the traditional governor's inaugural ball and he along with his wonderful wife instead organized a week of service across our state. Today, that week of service continues and has become a tremendous opportunity for non-profit organizations, community service organizations across our state connect with Delawareans excited about teaching our children the value of volunteerism, connecting with our neighbors and helping improve and strengthen our community.
I've long believed that those who engage in volunteerism and service to others in fact get more out of it than they put into it. Volunteerism is a fundamental part of what it means to be American. It is a great – some would say the greatest – part of America and its cultural traditions. However, volunteerism need not be confined to my state or to this week. It is something from which every American can benefit. In my view, one of the most effective volunteerism efforts is one with which I was first engaged when I was a resident briefly of your state, when I was working for the national "I Have a Dream” Foundation in New York City many years ago.
The national AmeriCorps program, a partnership between the federal government and local nonprofit communities was launched with bipartisan support, initially an idea proposed by President Bush and then enacted by President Clinton. The AmeriCorps program is now one which has had a tremendous impact. It enables 75,000 Americans annually to serve via AmeriCorps with a very wide range of programs, programs where the funding is raised and its focus is directed by state-by-state commissions of volunteers -- community leaders who help identify the best and most appropriate, most effective partners for this federally funded program that is also matched one to one from dollars from the local community. So far more than 60 million hours of community service annually have been provided by AmeriCorps members.
In Delaware, the volunteer fire service is one of the strongest parts of that long and proud history of our state. There are more than seventy volunteer fire companies in our state. They provide the vast majority of fire suppression service for our communities and they faced a real problem when I became County Executive. A steady loss in membership, as working-class families were under more and more pressure, more folks, both parents are working, they're under more stresses, more demands, it became more and more difficult for people to dedicate the time and the energy needed to be trained and serve as volunteer firefighters – and, in particular, to deliver ambulance service, one of the most important aspects of our volunteer fire service. So, in partnership with our New Castle County Volunteer Firefighters Association and with the YMCA and with AmeriCorps, I worked tirelessly to launch a new AmeriCorps program called the Emergency Services Corps.
The Emergency Service Corps helps recruit volunteer firefighters, conduct CPR and first aid training, and provides fire awareness training for schoolchildren across our county. So far they've recruited more than 220 new volunteer firefighters and logged more than 100,000 hours of service to our community in the five years since it was created as a partnership between all these different entities.
I just thought, Madam President, I would draw attention to that one example today of the hundreds of AmeriCorps programs across our country that are a shining example, I think, of how the young people of this country, people of all ages across this country, bring their gifts, their talent and their spirit to volunteering. In every generation of Americans heeding the call to service has been the answer to our greatest challenges, and with so many out of work, suffering from hunger or facing homelessness right here in our own country, I think it's critical we all pitch in to help. It's an affirmation of our bonds of citizenship and compassion to fellow citizens.
I'd like to encourage everyone in my state to visit the Volunteer Delaware web site to find volunteer opportunities this week. I'm putting a link to it on my web site at coons.senate.gov and urge those outside Delaware to participate in this national volunteerism week.