President Bush challenged Americans Tuesday to commit two years of their lives to volunteering. Some Cincinnatians wonder where they will find the time, but are receptive.

        Echoing his father's call to action during his term, Mr. Bush urged citizens to spend 4,000 hours in community service and announced a new USA Freedom Corps, which will focus on responding to emergencies.

        “This time of adversity offers a unique moment of opportunity — a moment we must seize to change our culture,” Mr. Bush said during his State of the Union address.

        The challenge comes almost five months after many Americans donated time, money and blood to help victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

        “I haven't been able to find time to volunteer,” Mount Washington resident Mike Cozzocera said Wednesday. The 23-year-old mortgage banker says he works 60-plus hours a week, but would consider volunteering for the new USA Freedom Corps if a chapter were established in Cincinnati.

        “I think it's a strong call to action,” he said.

        The number of adults who volunteer has increased in recent years, from 80 million in 1987 to 109 million in 1998, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Points of Light Foundation. But the number of hours each volunteer spends has dropped slightly in that time — from an average of 4.7 hours a week to 3.5 hours a week.

        Numerous presidents have issued nationwide calls to volunteer, including former Presidents Clinton, Bush and Reagan.

        In a 1996 university commencement address, Mr. Clinton urged a million Americans to join neighborhood anti-crime patrols and challenged every middle and high school to encourage community service.

        Former President Bush compared the country's volunteerism to a thousand points of light “in a broad and peaceful sky,” as he asked Americans to help others.

        “It is the student who stays after school to tutor a classmate.... It is the volunteer who delivers meals to the homes of the elderly. And these are the thousand points of light,” he said in a campaign speech.

        Mount Healthy resident Sandy Schwab, 56, heard her call to volunteer four years ago when her last child went to college.

        “I had some time on my hands,” she said.

        Ms. Schwab volunteers for the Crayons to Computers program, which provides new and recycled school supplies to 130 needy schools in greater Cincinnati.

        Tuesday, President Bush said the Freedom Corps would focus on three areas: “responding in case of crisis at home, rebuilding our communities and extending American compassion throughout the world.”

        He called on retired doctors and nurses to help in major emergencies, volunteers to help police and fire departments, and transportation and utility workers to be trained to spot dangers.

        He asked Americans to mentor children and to help expand the AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs, which now will be folded into the Freedom Corps.

        He also wants to double the number of volunteers for the Peace Corps, established by President Kennedy in 1961.

        “Through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of service and decency and kindness, I know we can overcome evil with greater good,” Mr. Bush said.

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