Michelle Nunn
Friends,
Twenty years ago, a group of friends and I started HandsOn Atlanta in a bar by passing a beer mug for donations. I can still vividly recall the energy and excitement of dreaming up something new, of being a part of creating a way for people to participate. So it's a real thrill to be able to play a part now in supporting the development of the next generation of social entrepreneurs.
Friends,
When President George H. W. Bush described his vision of 1,000 points of light, I was one of a handful of 20-somethings in Atlanta trying to build a movement of people who wanted to roll up their sleeves and solve local problems. It was 1989, and we were raising money by asking people to fill up empty beer mugs with small donations.
At the same time, President Bush was assembling an influential group of business and community leaders at Camp David to launch a new voice for volunteer service supported by millions in federal funding.
Friends,
The word "supper" means different things to different people, but for me it evokes memories of a big Southern fried chicken dinner around my grandmother's dining room table with family and friends and lots of stories, arguments and jokes.
Gathering around a common table has always been central to creating community and finding solutions. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of "the table of brotherhood." And there was a reason that one of the most potent acts of the civil rights movement was the simple insistence on having a seat at the table in restaurants across the South.