WASHINGTON, DC – The Washington DC Jewish Community Center would like to spread the word in our community aboutour annual MLK Day of Service. The projectbrings together close to 200 volunteers of all backgrounds and faiths. Volunteers will make a difference in the lives of young people in our community.

Volunteers will join together at both MC Terrell Elementary School and Shaw Junior High School to help make a change in the education of youth. At MC Terrell volunteers will paint various areas of the school to brighten the learning space for these students. While at Shaw volunteers will participate in one of four separate projects including; organizing over 20,000 library books, creating disaster relief kits for local schools in the case of an emergency, putting together healthy snack bags for low-income students and creating a Seat for Social Justice as a symbol to show the importance of becoming involved and standing up for one’s community.

Involvement in our service projects gives volunteers the opportunity to work with people from across the District with whom they share the same tradition of giving to the community, to those in need. The beginning of this year brings change to our city and our nation. President-Elect Obama has called the nation to service and volunteering to create a better nation. We are thrilled that our MLK Day of Service, now in its 11th year, will be able to be a part of this call to action. By volunteering their time on January 19th, community members have a chance to give from their heart and be a part of the change in our city. Everyone can celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and keep his legacy alive for the greater good of the Washington DC community to help people that are less fortunate than themselves.

Behrend Builders of the Morris Cafritz Center for Community Service (MCCCS) at the Washington DCJCC organizes major community service projects that address unmet needs in the Washington DC Metropolitan area. For 22 years MCCCS has enabled thousands of individuals to make a difference in our community. Volunteers take responsibility to enrich the lives of others as well as their own. Through active partnerships with over 100 social service agencies and corporations we are repairing our world-one DC neighborhood at a time.

The goals of the Washington DCJCC are to preserve and strengthen Jewish identity, heritage, tradition, and values thorough a wide variety of social, cultural, recreational and educational programs and services. The Morris Cafritz Center for Community Service is supported by a grant from the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. The program also receives support from the United Way of the Capital Area.

###