The King Day of Service is a way to transform Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and teachings into community service that helps solve social problems. That service may meet a tangible need, such as fixing up a school or senior center, or it may meet a need of the spirit, such as building a sense of community or mutual responsibility. How ambitious you choose to be depends on you—and on your community's resources.  For example, you could:

• Recruit mentors
• Hold a workshop on Dr. King's life and examine issues in your community that you can address
• Teach interview skills and resume writing
• Help a low income family find free tax preparation services in their community and take advantage of the earned income tax credit 
• Train tutors
• Make and distribute disaster kits
• Build a playground
• Participate in a neighborhood watch
• Bring meals to homebound neighbors
• Run a day camp for children with working parents
• Register bone marrow and organ donors
• Shovel elderly neighbors' walkways
• Arrange a health fair
• Teach seniors how to surf the Internet
• Devise crafts projects for children in hospitals
• Make a public space accessible to the disabled
• Serve meals at a homeless shelter
• Remove graffiti from a building and paint a mural

Here are some additional examples of what others have done in recent years:

Building Partnerships
City of Bloomington “A Day On! Not a Day Off!”
Bloomington, Indiana

Strengthening Communities
District of Columbia Jewish Community Center
Washington, DC

Uniting Across Faiths
Day of Unity and Empowerment
Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Bridging Barriers
Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Helping Those In Need
Los Angeles Conservation Corps
South Central and East Los Angeles, California