Once Again on the March

Colin Powell can do just about anything he wants. He could run for President, run a FORTUNE 500 corporation, a university or a foundation. The publisher of his best-selling autobiography, My American Journey, is begging him to write another. The crate of mail he gets each day is heavy with offers. My favorite is an offer to make a quick million by penning Chicken Soup for the Black Soul.

He assures me he won't be turning out an instant chicken-soup book or throwing his name into the presidential or vice-presidential ring. What Powell chooses to do instead is continue to run America's Promise, his "crusade" to enlist corporations, government, nonprofit organizations and millions of citizens into giving every child at risk five things: an ongoing relationship with a caring adult, a safe place to go after school (most juveniles get in trouble between the hours of 3 and 8 p.m.), as well as a healthy start, a marketable skill and a chance to serve others.

But isn't this what everyone wants? The difference is that Powell decided to use his credibility and celebrity to bring it about, to come up with one plan for how 400 different groups should "take the hill." Celebrating its second anniversary, America's Promise is on its way to surpassing its pledge to help "2 million kids by 2000." It's hard to measure the bottom line of an activity that doesn't have a traditional balance sheet. But to get away from the mushy anecdotal indices of success, Powell got the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers (it volunteered) to evaluate the second year's effort. The firm sampled 91 of the 441 commitments made in 14,000 places and found that 10.3 million children had been "touched," which means served by a "promise partner." The dollar value of the commitments was $295.5 million.

Not a bad showing for someone operating on a shoeshine and a smile, moral suasion and optimism. I was among the skeptics who thought America's Promise couldn't live up to its opening day, when the President, Vice President, all the former Presidents except Ronald Reagan, along with 38 Governors and 100 mayors and celebs like Oprah Winfrey, gathered at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Was volunteerism going to be cool? Not just little old ladies with time on their hands but also people in their prime taking precious moments away from their cell phones and Stairmasters?