wfn.org | "Leave No Child Behind" Vigil 2 p.m. March 13, D.C.

[Carol Fouke <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contacts: Gigi Hinton, Children's Defense Fund 202-662-3609
Carol Fouke, National Council of Churches, 212-870-2252/2227
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org; Web: www.ncccusa.org
NCC3/11/02

"LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND" VIGIL IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
2 P.M. MARCH 13, 2002, CAPITOL EAST STEPS

WHAT: A "Lenten Vigil" at the U.S. Capitol in support of the "Act to Leave
No Child Behind" (S. 940 and H.R. 1990).  Vigil co-sponsors are the National
Council of Churches and the Children's Defense Fund.  CDF initiated the
campaign "to ensure every child a healthy start, a head start, a fair start,
a safe start and a moral start with the support of caring families and
communities."  (See www.childrensdefense.org for more information.)

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, March 13, 2 to 2:45 p.m., East steps of the U.S.
Capitol Building (House Office Building side), Washington, D.C.  Vigil
participants will gather beforehand for a 1 p.m. briefing at Bread for the
World, 50 "F" Street N.W., Suite 500, leaving at 1:30 p.m. to walk together
to the Capitol.

WHO: Vigil leaders will include the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, NCC General
Secretary, and Marian Wright Edelman, CDF President.

DETAILS: The "Act to Leave No Child Behind" (S. 940 and H.R. 1990) is
comprehensive legislation for America's children introduced on May 23, 2001,
by Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Representative George Miller
of California.

In a written greeting to vigil participants, Edgar and Edelman said, "In
this season of reflection and self-examination no American can feel
satisfied with our national credo of 'liberty and justice for all' while
more than 12 million of our children live in poverty, lack health care and
adequate, affordable child care and other critical services."

Vigil participants are contributing "voice and action to a persistent
campaign to Leave No Child Behind," they wrote.  "We are a movement of
people determined that every child shall have the opportunity to live the
life for which he or she was created."

The NCC - the nation's leading ecumenical organization whose 36 Protestant
and Orthodox member denominations comprise 50 million adherents - in 2001
launched a 10-year mobilization against U.S. poverty, giving it particular
emphasis every March (see the NCC's "March: On Poverty 2002" at
www.ncccusa.org/poverty/.)

The March 13 "Lenten Vigil" at the Capitol precedes the NCC-sponsored "TANF
Action Days for Poverty Reduction," which opens at 4 p.m. March 13 at
National City Christian Church on Thomas Circle.  This ecumenical conference
on reauthorization of key welfare policies continues Thursday at the Rayburn
House Office Building (Room 2226, House Judiciary Committee Hearing Room),
concluding Friday morning (March 15) back at the church.

-end-