August 30th, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
This morning, an unprecedented number of dinosaurs took to the streets of Washington, DC to tell Congress to stop national service extinction. The hundreds of dinosaurs and national service advocates were present at 8 locations across the city. This included Dupont Circle, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and Union Station. The morning ended with a record number of dinosaurs rallying at the US Capitol. Organized by Service Year Alliance, the campaign was in response to President Trump's 2018 budget proposal which threatens to eliminate national service programs like AmeriCorps and outlines the largest cut to the Peace Corps by a president in 40 years.
"While dinosaurs are fun — national service extinction is a serious matter. If President Trump's budget becomes reality, the 80,000 young people who serve every year won't be responding to natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey, teaching in our underperforming schools, supporting our veterans, maintaining our national parks, or tackling issues like the opioid epidemic and unemployment," said Shirley Sagawa, CEO of Service Year Alliance. "National service advocates made themselves known to Congress and the entire DC community this morning. As the Senate sits down to markup the FY18 budget next week, we encourage them to listen to the folks who gathered outside the Capitol and expand national service instead of letting it go extinct."
View more photos and videos from this morning's event and take action to stop national service extinction at LetUsServe.org.
