This is the fifth annual year Barry University has brought together students, faculty and staff to participate in the Martin Luther King Day Challenge

For this year’s Martin Luther King holiday, President-elect Barack Obama is urging Americans to honor the holiday as a day of service, volunteering in their communities and helping the disadvantaged.

More than 250 volunteers from Barry University will take part in the national initiative this Saturday, Jan. 17, landscaping a housing facility in Overtown as well as taking part in other service projects throughout Miami-Dade County.

The event will run from 9 a.m. to noon and marks the fifth year the university has participated in the Martin Luther King Day of Service. In Overtown, Barry volunteers will be planting, mulching and landscaping the Town Park Village condos. Condo residents will join with Barry’s volunteers for the project, and some Barry students will also be doing arts and crafts with children who live in the building. The landscaping and renovation is an ongoing project, and uses all native plants supplied by Southern Blossoms for environmental sustainability.

The housing facility is located at:

Town Park Village
1680 NW 4th Ave.
Miami, Fla.

While volunteers help landscape in Overtown, some 50 other participants from Barry will also paint homes for seniors in Liberty City through Hands on Miami. The Overtown project is being organized on a larger scale by Service for Peace, an international not-for-profit organization. Barry’s group is part of the more than 1500 volunteers throughout Miami-Dade County who will be volunteering through Service for Peace on Saturday.

The service component of Martin Luther King Day was designated by Congress in 1994, inspired by King’s words “everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” However, it has received renewed attention this year with Obama’s call to service leading up to his Jan. 20th Presidential Inauguration. For more information on this year’s Martin Luther King Day of Service, please see this recent story from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/01/09/ST2009010903841.html.

Please let me know ahead of time if you will be covering the event. I will be on site at Overtown and can be reached on my cell phone that day at (305) 803-0274. I’ve included directions to the Town Park Village condos below.

From 95S:

Head south on I-95
Take exit 3A for State Hwy 836W
Keep right at the fork, follow signs for NW14th St. and merge onto NW14th St.
Turn right at NW9th Ave.
Turn right at NW 17th St./Ed Newman St. and continue to follow NW 17th St.
Turn right at NW 4th Ave. The Town Park Village condos will be on your right.

From 95N:

Head north on I-95
Take exit 3A on the left for State Hwy 836W
Merge onto SR-836W
Exit onto NW 12th Ave.
Turn right at NW 14th St.
Turn left at NW 7th Ave./US 441
Turn right at NW 17 St.
Turn right at NW 4th Ave. The Town Park Village condos will be on your right.

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