More Americans Are Volunteering

Is it too soon to proclaim this the Age of Volunteerism? Americans spent 100 million more hours volunteering in 2009 than the year before, and 1.6 million more people got involved in the—the biggest single-year increase since 2003. The totals: 63.4 million Americans spent over 8.1 billion hours volunteering, according government agency the Cooperation for National and Community Service, which runs programs such as AmeriCorps. President Barack Obama has made community service a top priority since taking office last year. The report says areas with high unemployment and high numbers of foreclosures have lower volunteer rates.