DIVERSITY | Offering a place for everyone
15 January 2009
Americans Urged to Do Volunteer Work on Martin Luther King Day
President-elect Obama asks for ongoing commitment to serving the community
Washington — President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama are calling on all Americans to join them on the Martin Luther King Day of Service in volunteering for a community service project.
The president-elect is also asking Americans to go beyond a single day of service and make an ongoing commitment to their communities in the spirit of King’s legacy, which encompasses not only nonviolent resistance to oppression and injustice but also hope, equality and service.
Michelle Obama has urged Americans to join her family in a day of service on the Martin Luther King Day holiday. “It’s going to be up to all of us to renew America together,” she says on a video posted on the initiative’s Web site.
“Inaugurations are always a new start,” former Secretary of State Colin Powell said in announcing the Renew America Together Initiative on January 9 in conjunction with the presidential inaugural committee.
Powell asked Americans to go to a new Web site, USAService.org, and volunteer to host or participate in some event in their community on Martin Luther King Day.
Powell also echoed Obama in suggesting that people use their MLK Service Day experience as a springboard to volunteering year round: “Mentor at a school. Go to a first-grade class and read. Go to a place where older people need to have company, need to have people visit with them,” Powell said.
Twenty-six years ago, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill establishing the third Monday in January as a federal holiday to honor civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday is January 15.
Congress designated the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday as a national day of community service in 1994. “Make it a day on, not a day off” has become the unofficial slogan for the holiday.
Philadelphia usually mounts the largest slate of events. This year approximately 65,000 volunteers are expected to clean up city parks, playgrounds, streets, schools and homes of the elderly; help with resettling refugees coming from around the world; donate blood or participate in Red Cross Certification classes for life-saving skills; prepare and serve free meals for the needy; collect blankets, coats and sweaters for the homeless; and donate food, clothing and children’s books to local charities.
Kids’ carnivals, health and wellness fairs, mural painting, parades, ecumenical religious services and cultural events will be part of the observances in Philadelphia.
Other cities and towns across the nation decide locally how to observe the day, with activities ranging from engaging people in direct service to bringing people together to reflect on Martin Luther King's legacy and how they can become more engaged citizens.
The USAService Web site said that as of January 14, five days before the holiday, more than 8,500 service events were listed on its site. From donating blood to giving horseback rides to disabled children, the range of projects is enormous.
For instance, the small town of Whitefish, Montana, is asking citizens to bring a shovel, snow blower or snow plow so they can spend the afternoon helping elderly and disabled residents with snow removal. In Haiku, Hawaii — where it is considerably warmer — volunteers will clean up a local beach and paint tables and chairs.
In San Francisco, a Latino service employees union is seeking donations of blankets for migrant workers, and a church group will be making bag lunches for the homeless.
In New Jersey, the New Brunswick Islamic Center is asking people to help distribute food in honor of King, “who played a major part in the movement of civil rights for all people.”
In Ocala, Florida, volunteers will write letters to U.S. military members deployed overseas.
Students, parents and other volunteers will paint the upper floor of an elementary school in Redford, Michigan.
In Tupelo, Mississippi, and other towns, a group called Birthing Project USA is asking for donations of baby blankets and diapers for pregnant and parenting young mothers.
In a spirit reminiscent of the Obama presidential campaign, the USAService Web site encourages not only national and local organizations to host events but also individual volunteers. “The goal is for MLK Day to reignite the American tradition of service and volunteerism and to that end the current call to action is viewed as a starting point,” the Web site explains. “Details on how to stay active in the future will be coming soon.”
For more information, see the Web sites Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service and USAService.
Also see Diversity and Black History Month, and a new publication, Free at Last: The U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
