Jon Tisch's Civil Society

There was the 7-year-old who recently planted trees with classmates at the Town School, and the 20-something who works Excel spreadsheet magic on behalf of nonprofits. There was a member of Vanity Fair's best-dressed list, who delivers meals with City Meals on Wheels, as well as Bill Clinton, who said that he'd just been talking to nine new employees of his foundation about the fight against AIDS in Africa. Mayor Bloomberg boasted that under his leadership, New York City has the nation's first municipal Chief Service Officer, Diahann Billings-Burford. Her job is to promote and facilitate volunteerism. Ms. Billings-Burford, for her part, said that Friday morning at 7 she would be in the Bronx, helping launch a walking school bus -- that is, a group of parents who have trained to walk children to school, in this case P.S. 6 in East Tremont.

And that's just a sampling of the civil society that gathered at the Museum of Modern Art Thursday night to celebrate Jon Tisch's new book, "Citizen You: Doing Your Part to Change the World" (Crown).

A good citizen recognizes opportunities to support those they believe in, and so Mr. Clinton at the podium praised Mr. Bloomberg for going to Washington D.C. on Wednesday to lobby for tougher gun control. "Before my wife made me a New Yorker," he said, "I was your standard American red neck. And I would shoot a 22 when I was 10, 11 years old. And it bothers me that Congress is so scared of the NRA they they won't do things that 85% to 90% of Americans are plainly for. There are people who think all constitutional rights should be stripped for people who are even vaguely suspected of being terrorists, but they still ought to be able to buy a 50-caliber weapon that would take out one of the walls here at the museum. So I want to thank the mayor for sticking up for common sense."

Mr. Tisch said his parents, Joan and Preston Robert Tisch, and his aunt and uncle, Billie and Lawrence Tisch, had inspired him. "They started this. They didn't have much when they were growing up but through their hard work, through their discipline, through their dedication, and through their educating us about understanding your responsibilities — we are so fortunate to be part of a family that cares about each other, and then cares about each other," he said.

Mr. Bloomberg also said he had learned from Preston Robert Tisch and Lawrence Tisch. "It was Jon's father and Jon's uncle who taught me about philanthropy back in the late 1960s, when I got a chance to meet these two august men, whom I never thought I would be. Both of them took me aside and explained to me we all have a responsibility, and I watched both of them. They were role models for me then and they are role models for me now."

The mayor then summed up the main idea of the book: "Good people doing good work inspire more good people to do more good work," he said.

Guests left the party with a copy of the book, signed by Mr. Tisch in a spring-colored green, and a $25 gift certificate to redeem at DonorsChoose.org, which allows individuals to buy supplies for classroom projects that school teachers register on the site. Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bloomberg left after their remarks, to attend an American Ireland Fund gala honoring Bono.