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"Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love."

When Martin Luther King wrote those words, he was speaking to a community of people in need of empowerment and reassurance that the government would and could serve them. As Prince George's County faces a similar reality in 2010, King's words are even more telling than they were over 50 years ago. Prince Georgians can and should have the audacity to challenge the notion that the government is the sole provider of public services in our county. We can tutor our students, we can participate in our neighborhood crime watch, and we can preserve our environment ... together.

In a time when households are tightening their budgets, the single greatest gift someone can give is their time. In 2010, I project that nonprofits will be called on by more and more Prince Georgians to shoulder the burden of cutbacks in government services like education, health care and policing.

As a board member of the Potomac Overlook YMCA, a former Peace Corps volunteer and someone who has worked in the nonprofit field for the past seven years, I truly understand the impact a volunteer can have on a child, an organization or a community. At the YMCA, where donors historically subsidized programs that serve both seniors and children, we are seeing folks more willing to donate their time than their money. For nonprofits like the YMCA and Boys & Girls Club, volunteers represent a significant in-kind contribution that they rely on every fiscal year, and 2010 will be no different. In times like these, the demand for volunteers exceeds the supply. Churches like Ebenezer AME in Fort Washington get daily requests for math and science tutors, while senior living homes and nonprofits solicit the help of volunteers through their Web sites and on television everyday. In spite of the shortfall in man and woman power, every day our schools, police departments, nonprofits and churches stretch their resources to meet the demands of a growing county.

We all know that teachers, police officers, churches and elected officials can do better, but we can too. As basic services and government funding are rolled back even further in 2010, we need community mobilization and participation to compensate for shortfalls lest we punish our children, our seniors and our underprivileged.

Thankfully, thousands of Prince Georgians have absorbed the burden of reduced government support by volunteering at church, with the Boys & Girls Club, with the volunteer fire department, or with their collegiate alumni associations. High school students spend hours volunteering to meet countywide requirements but also because they care. Active members of fraternities and sororities dedicate nights and weekends to providing SAT prep to high school students, raising money to send students to college and mentoring those students until they graduate. We all can join them. Charity begins at home; seeking volunteer opportunities where we already spend our time is a good start. Volunteering where our values and interests are being promoted makes the time more fulfilling as well. Whether it's the environment, children or the homeless, volunteering a few hours a month can make a huge difference.

In 2010, my resolution is to dedicate even more of my time to volunteering and to public service. Volunteerism unites individuals around their values and interests. Collectively we are infinitely stronger than we are individually. And ever since a trusted and faithful group of volunteers from Prince George's rolled back the tide of history and helped elect the first African-American president of the United States, I never believed more in [anthropologist] Margaret Mead's famous quote: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Curtis Valentine of Fort Washington is the former regional field director for the Obama for America campaign in Prince George's County.