From FDR to Bill Clinton's AmeriCorps, leadership in service has always come from the president.

The day before the inauguration is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and the president-elect wants it to be devoted to service. But Barack Obama knows that one Monday of good deeds - even if it becomes an annual tradition when people help each other rather than sit home watching TV - isn't enough. Throughout the campaign, he talked about something much bigger - a new era of civic engagement, with a quarter-million young people helping pay for their education by serving their country at home and abroad.