Want to change the world? In Center City's Love Park yesterday, 125 people ages 17 to 24 -- along with event organizers and VIPs -- stated an emphatic "yes" to that question for the opening of the 1999-2000 City Year Philadelphia program. City Year Philadelphia is the local affiliate of the national City Year program, an AmeriCorps affiliate. Celebrating its 10th anniversary with the group of volunteers sworn in at the Love Park ceremony, City Year is a community service group that places volunteers to aid in depressed communities while showing that, as corps member Herbert Stewart put it, "we are all interconnected -- all people, regardless of class, race or lifestyle." In light of that goal, City Year Philadelphia itself is composed of a diverse group of people; as spokesperson Chris Kovloski pointed out, members range "from GED candidates to Penn graduates." Several speakers, including Kenny Holdsman, director of service learning for the School District of Philadelphia, City Council member Michael Nutter and Power 99 DJ Goldengirl, helped introduce the program and its volunteers. Called "corpsmembers," the City Year volunteers start their day with calisthenics in Love Park -- located at 15th Street and JFK Boulevard -- to "build community and prepare minds and bodies for service" before taking SEPTA, one of the event's corporate sponsors, to their project areas. City Year Philadelphia corpsmembers serve as mentors to students in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Half of the corps' volunteers serve in America's Promise -- the national alliance for youth mentoring led by retired general Colin Powell -- which provides mentoring and training in conflict resolution to children. The other half of the members serve with the School District and the local tutoring group Philadelphia Reads to provide literacy training and tutoring and to lead lessons in schools. At the opening, Jeff Schwartz -- founder and chief executive officer of Timberland, national City Year's founding sponsor -- gave the keynote address while corpsmembers showed off their new uniforms, provided by the company. Schwartz recounted the letter sent to him 10 years ago by City Year's founders requesting 50 pairs of boots for the first corpsmembers; that first donation of boots marked the beginning of Timberland's support of City Year, which has expanded to include Timberland employees volunteering their time, resources and homes to aid City Year's goals. This year's corps includes two Penn alumni, 1999 College graduates Ben Cohen and Neil Batiancila. Cohen, who plans to attend medical school after his service in City Year, looked into various service options before settling on City Year. What convinced him, he said, was the diversity of the corpsmembers. "Everybody is really different," he said. "It's a great opportunity to educate young people, create trust and become a better person." Batiancila, who will be aiding a group of students at Hartranft Elementary School in North Philadelphia, views his 10-month City Year commitment as an opportunity to "align idealistic visions with goals." "Every kid wants to save the world coming out of college," Batiancila said. "This is a great chance."
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