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Ärende: Press Release (0605193) for Fri, 2006 May 19
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Mrs. Bush's Remarks at Luncheon Reception for Martha Rainville Victory 2006
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For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
May 19, 2006

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at Luncheon Reception for Martha Rainville Victory 2006
The Inn at Essex
Burlington, Vermont



12:20 P.M. EDT

MRS. BUSH: Thanks for the very warm welcome to your beautiful state.
General Rainville, thank you very much. I'm so thrilled and honored to have
the opportunity to be here for you and for the Republican Party. I want to
acknowledge your Governor, Jim Douglas. You've got a really wonderful
Governor. (Applause.)

The Chairman of the Vermont Republican Party, Jim Barnett, is here. Jim,
thank you for what you do. Randy Brock, the Vermont State Auditor, thank
you very much. And General Rainville's son Alex is here, as well as your
daughter, is that right? Jennifer. So they're both here. Lieutenant
Governor, Brian Dubie, thank you also for joining us today.

I'm so happy to be in Vermont, and I'm especially delighted to be here to
support your great candidate for the United States Congress, Major General
Martha Rainville. (Applause.)

Martha will be a passionate advocate for Vermont's values in the House of
Representatives, and her military leadership experience makes her uniquely
qualified to serve at this crucial time in our nation's history.

In 1997, Martha became the first woman in the 370-year history of our
country's National Guard to be elected adjutant general. She paved the way
for other women, and America's National Guard now has two more women
adjutant generals. Thank you, Martha, for being a role model for women
across our country. (Applause.)

During her time at the National Guard, and before that the Air Force,
Martha served with courage and distinction. Under her leadership, the
Vermont National Guard has responded more rapidly to major natural
disasters in your state, including four floods and an epic ice storm in the
span of 18 months. And Martha led the Guard during this crucial phase in
the war on terror, overseeing the largest mobilization of Vermont Guardsmen
since World War II.

Martha is also serving Vermonters with compassion. Over the last two years,
she has made the well-being of Guard families her top priority. During
Martha's tenure, the Vermont legislature passed the first tuition
assistance bill for National Guard members, and extended educational
benefits to Guard families.

And close to my heart, Martha is a champion of literacy and education
throughout your state, working with young people to encourage reading.

These achievements remind us of why the people of Vermont need Martha as
your representative in Congress. And because she's such a passionate
advocate for our children, people across America need her voice in
Congress, too. (Applause.)

Helping young people build the knowledge and the self-respect they need to
lead successful lives is at the heart of the Helping America's Youth
initiative. In his 2005 State of the Union address, President Bush
announced the Helping America's Youth initiative, and he asked me to lead
it. So over the last year, I've traveled to all parts of our country,
visiting with young people and with the adults who are so important to
their lives. I've been to schools and to after-school programs. I've met
with mentors and Big Brothers and Big Sisters. I've visited gang
intervention programs, where I've met young people who are leaving gangs
and finding jobs. I visited with a school debate program in Atlanta, where
students learn to use their voices and not their fist to resolve problems.

Recently, I heard from the directors of a program in Los Angeles that I
visited last year. That program, Will Power to Youth, uses the performing
arts -- performances of Shakespeare, actually -- to teach young people
employable skills. They wrote to me about a young man, Jes s, who was on
the verge of homelessness when I met him. Since then, with his experience
building sets for these performances, Jes s is now working at Home Depot,
and he was just named the Home Depot Employee of the Month.

All of these visits culminated with the White House Conference on Helping
America's Youth last October, where we introduced an online, interactive
community guide to helping America's youth. This guide is a terrific asset
for communities who are trying to determine their own local needs, and then
trying to find resources to meet them. On the site, adults who are looking
for help for their youth can find demographic maps of your community,
showing which neighborhoods have the most children. They can also create a
map that shows where the youth programs in their communities are located.
Comparing the maps, community leaders can then identify neighborhoods where
young people don't have access to after-school activities or mentoring
programs or other positive alternatives to risky behavior.

The Community Guide can also help concerned adults establish proven youth
programs, programs that are proven to help young people in these
underserved areas. The website offers a list of programs that help people
avoid dangerous behaviors. The Community Guide is available on the website,
www.helpingamericasyouth.gov, g-o-v, that is. So I urge all of you to look
at this Community Guide, and then to use it here in Vermont in each one of
your neighborhoods.

We need to provide America's young people with strong role models, and
General Martha Rainville is that. She has the absolute integrity and a
commitment to bringing out the very best in America that makes her the kind
of model we want for all of our children. (Applause.)

And Martha understands that America faces issues that are too important to
be reduced to simple politics. She knows that President Bush has an
ambitious agenda for the rest of his term in Washington. Ending our
dependence on foreign oil, reforming our immigration system, rebuilding a
better and more beautiful Gulf Coast, and keeping our country safe from
terrorists are all vital goals. To accomplish them, we need to have serious
national conversations conducted with civility and respect, and Martha's
voice will be a thoughtful, positive and powerful part of that dialogue.

This is just one reason why Martha will be a wonderful leader for Vermont.
In her long and distinguished record of public service, you'll find many
more.

So I want to thank you for everything you've already done. Thank you for
your support of Martha and the Republican Party, and I want to urge you to
redouble your efforts to turn out the vote so that Martha is elected this
November to the United States Congress. Thank you all very, very much.
(Applause.)

END 12:29 P.M. EDT
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