TIPPER GORE MAKES PITCH FOR NATIONAL-SERVICE PLAN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 2, 1993                   TAG: 9303020134
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
TIPPER GORE MAKES PITCH FOR NATIONAL-SERVICE PLAN
Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, on Monday urged young Virginians to volunteer in their communities and take part in President Clinton's proposed national-service program.
While Clinton was unveiling a pilot of his campaign promise to allow students to pay for college with national service, Gore stumped for the plan in Virginia. Her husband promoted the plan in Wisconsin.
"This is not an attempt to create another bureaucracy," she said during a morning tour of St. Joseph's Villa in Henrico County. "The idea is to work with what's already there . . . to encourage kids to volunteer and foster leadership."
Youths volunteer for a variety of programs at St. Joseph's, a nonprofit center that provides day care, special education, programs for troubled adolescents and a home for displaced women and children. The organization is the type that might employ students enrolled in the national service program.
Gore stopped at the day-care center to read "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut" by Dr. Seuss to six toddlers.
Kathleen O'Rourke, a St. Joseph's spokeswoman, said Gore was interested in visiting a facility that teaches women who have been homeless how to support themselves and their children.
"It provides them a transition and an opportunity to change their lifestyles. Rather than throwing them fish, we teach them how to fish," O'Rourke said.
St. Joseph's Villa, a nonprofit organization, offers day care, a special-education school, residential facilities and programs for troubled adolescents.
Gore also spoke to University of Richmond students who volunteer at St. Joseph's in return for college credit.
"This is unusual and obviously very successful," she said of the model university program.
Credit may be earned for work in shelters, with the elderly or elsewhere.
Shandra Miller, a St. Joseph's resident, told Gore that she plans to take a job out of the Richmond area and leave the center by February 1994. But she says she doesn't know if she can afford both rent and day care.
"How can the national-service program help me with day care?" asked Miller, 27, who has two children under the age of 5. She said other service agencies have waiting lists for child care.
Gore did not know whether day care would be included but said she would make sure that Clinton was aware of Miller's suggestion.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB