Thomas Kinkade -Larry King Live

KING: We welcome to 'LARRY KING LIVE" two great Americans, Robert Goodwin is president and CEO of the Points of Light Foundation. He's on your left. The new book is "Points of Life, a celebration of the American spirit of giving".

With him is Thomas Kinkade, well known as the Painter of Light, the world's most collected living artist. He's co-author and illustrator of "Points of Light."

This is a throw-back to the Bush Administration, Robert?

ROBERT GOODWIN, PRESIDENT, POINTS OF LIGHT FOUNDATION: It is. Former President Bush used the term as a metaphor for how everyday citizens could transform their communities through their selfless acts of giving. A nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization based in Washington carries on that tradition.

We are working at the community level, as well as at the national leadership level, getting more people involved helping to make things right in their communities through their giving, and we are so very pleased that Thomas Kinkade, who reflects warmth and compassion through his painting as "The Painter of Light," is now the "Ambassador of Light," and we have teamed up to raise money - in some cases, Larry, to help the victims still suffering from the storms of the Southland -- but mostly to get the word out that everyday people can make a difference in their communities.

KING: How did they get you, Thomas?

THOMAS KINKADE, ARTIST: Well, it is just sort of a natural outgrowth of my life. When I was a young boy, my mother told me, "Your talents are God's gifts to you, and what you do with those talents are your gift to God. So from the very first print I ever published, I began raising money for charities. We did a program, for example, right after 9/11, where I did a painting of a flag flying over the New York City skyline. It raised almost $2 million for the Salvation Army for their relief effort, and I was just so involved with non-profit work that at a certain point we realized we were floating in the same circles and we decided to team up.

We wrote the book as our first project, but, you know, I've taken my paintings - the painting I presented to you earlier, actually, is our national fundraising painting...

KING: Beautiful.

KINKADE: ...and I take that all over the country and I unveil the painting, I do a little sketch on the back, and we auction it -- and so far in the last four months we have raised $350,000 for the Points of Light.

KING: Once - no pun intended, Robert - what is the "point" of the book? Why do we need the book?

GOODWIN: Inspiration - we know that there is an instinct deeply embedded in the American tradition of giving back to community, but people need to be motivated. They need to understand, first of all, you don't have to be specially trained, perhaps. You don't have to have some great degree. You just have to be willing to extend yourself in behalf of others in need, and these are stories of ordinary people who have done extraordinary things and have transformed both individual lives, and in some cases, communities, through that.

So we want to inspire people. We want people to understand that anybody can do it and that there are resources at the community level that will assist you if you are so inclined to become involved in powerful ways.

KING: Is "volunteer" a word that is ingrained in us? Do we naturally volunteer, or not?

KINKADE: I think that human beings have an instinct to care about other human beings, and we talk about "letting your light shine." Well, human beings don't glow physically in a dark room, but "letting your light shine" is just a metaphor for caring enough about another human being, or about your community, or about your world, to inconvenience yourself and to work at making a difference.

I call light "love in action," so if you take your love for your fellow human being and put it in action, that is "letting your light shine." So everywhere I speak, I talk about "letting your light shine." Points of Light is a celebration of 12 individuals, ordinary people, who have made an extraordinary difference - real people...

KING: The book is about them?

KINKADE: ...real places, and it celebrates them, tells their story. One of the people featured is my own daughter, Merritt, who, a couple of years ago, on Christmas Eve, baked some cookies for a local senior care facility and that has grown into what we call Merritt's Cookie Connection. She gives cookies to retired people, elder people, some of which never have a visitor, and she brings cookies to them.

KING: Could be anything, right?

GOODWIN: That's right.

KING: Doing something for someone else that puts you as self out.

GOODWIN: Here's the point, Larry, I think. One of the greatest causes of the most serious social problems facing our nation today is social isolation - people who are literally estranged from one another and from the redeeming virtues of community.

What we have got to do is to bring people together across their differences -- whether they are the most obvious differences of race or class or age or sexual orientation or all the things that divide us -- to be able to build community and where people feel they have a stake in a community of other people.

Well, service and volunteering simply becomes the most available strategy to the average person to forge those connections, so volunteering is an instinct of the American tradition. Giving back is a requirement for healthy communities, and what we are doing for this is telling those stories and encouraging more people to do the same.

KING: What happens when you call 1-800-VOLUNTEER, or the Web site is www.pointsoflight.org. What happens when you call?

GOODWIN: You can call 1-800-VOLUNTEER, or if you go to the Web site - we have several different ways to get to us on the Web - if you go to that Web site and you put in your ZIP code, you will get back a list of volunteer opportunities within your community.

Points of Light, through our affiliate structure of what are called volunteer centers - nearly 400 around the country - are in the business of helping you to find places where you can go in your neighborhood, in your community, that meet your interests, your time, your availability. So, 1-800-VOLUNTEER will take you through a very simple intake process, and we will put you into a volunteer opportunity that fits your interest.

KING: President Bush still involved, Thomas?

KINKADE: Oh, yes he is. As a matter of fact, we had a wonderful meeting with the president earlier this year. This is his heart. He spoke of "a thousand points of light," obviously, and this really is not a new concept.

John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." Really, I think there is something so satisfying, deeply satisfying, about serving.

A case in point - we called the 1-800-VOLUNTEER and got hooked up with a community clean-up. It was a local park that a bunch of kids were getting together and picking up pieces of trash. That Saturday became one of the best memories I have made with my children.

I have four beautiful children. My wife and I have been married almost 25 years. But we look back and we realize this has become a habit in our family -- the idea of giving back, taking time to make a difference, and...

KING: You feel good yourself, right?

KINKADE: You feel better yourself than you do - it's more fun to go clean up the neighborhood park than it is to hop in your car and go to the neighborhood mall. One is completely self-serving; the other is a way to give back. And even in a small way like that, you build a memory that lasts a lifetime.

KING: Robert, you said that people can provide hope for the world. Isn't that a little "Pollyanna-ish"?

GOODWIN: I don't think so. I think that one of the great problems that we have is so many people have no sense of hope. They have no sense of options. They really feel like that choices that they face are so debilitating or non-existent.

Well, when you - if you are a child and you need help in the classroom, or you need positive role models, to have a caring mentor open up a world of new possibilities, you certainly provide hope for that person in that corner of the world. And if enough other people do the same, then the whole idea of what is the uncertain future before us changes.

I give you another very simple idea. One of our favorite people and another author of some renown, Marianne Williamson, who I know you know...

KING: Very well.

GOODWIN: ...Marianne said in her book, "Illuminata," that we refer to all the time - she said, "The antidote to that which is fundamentally wrong is the cultivation of that which is fundamentally right."

So if people living in isolation from one another is at the root of our most serious and seemingly intractable social problems, then connecting people across their differences is the hope for tomorrow.

KING: I thank you for that great painting. You're a great American artist.

KINKADE: Thank you.

KING: The book is - the foreword is by George Bush, the 41st president - the book is "Points of Light: A Celebration of the American Spirit of Giving." Our guests have been Robert Goodwin and Thomas Kinkade. I thank you both - salute you both.

GOODWIN: Thank you, Larry

KINKADE: Thank you, Larry.

KING: Thank you, guys.

We'll be right back. Don't go away.