This Thursday, Sept. 15, we hope you will join us to tell Congress that this is not the time to dismantle national and community service programs which have been so central to our nation's progress.

We saw it in the 1930s, when 3,470 fire towers were erected, 97,000 miles of fire roads were built and more than three billion trees were planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps. We saw it this past Sunday in the thousands of acts of service rendered in remembrance of the lives lost on 9/11.

We see it now in the soaring number of applications from college graduates to Teach For America and other national service programs.

We see it in the dramatic rise in the rates of volunteerism in the past two decades with 23 million more Americans volunteering today than in 1989.

We Americans want to give. We want to be in the thick of history, helping, forging a new chapter in our remarkable history as a people, especially in the tough times.

As we face tough budget choices as a nation, we need to ensure that we continue to invest a relatively modest but critical set of resources in supporting and equipping our citizens to meet the needs of our communities. Long-standing, bipartisan initiatives like Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) and AmeriCorps are threatened by significant budgets cuts or, worse, outright elimination.

National and community service programs have always been a sound investment, a small public expenditure matched, dollar for dollar, by private resources. Moreover, these hard-working volunteers and national service members have returned millions of dollars in sweat equity to distressed communities around the country.

Points of Light Institute, our HandsOn Network of 250 affiliates across the country and our national service alumni division AmeriCorps Alums believe that everyone wanting to serve in this country should be met with an effective, well-managed opportunity to make a difference. To that end, we have joined forces with the larger service sector around the Save Service campaign to remind Democrats and Republicans that service has always been common ground. On that ground, we can build a better future together.

We urge all of those who care about national and community service to call 1-855-US-SERVE on Thursday, Sept. 15 to tell your Senators and your Representative why service and volunteering programs are vital to your community. We also encourage you to share this information with your networks and visit Save Service on Facebook for updates, promotional tools and more.