Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service blesses communities, volunteers

This past Martin Luther King Jr. Day, on Jan. 15, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints within the United States joined their friends and neighbors to serve of their communities.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a national holiday honored every third Monday in January. In 1994, Congress passed a bill dedicating the day as a national day of service. The holiday recognizes the Rev. King’s legacy and calls people into public service.

Through the assistance of JustServe — an internet site and app where charitable and community organizations list their needs — volunteers were in a position to participate in service projects around them. Below are some examples of that service.

In Lewisville, Texas, JustServe volunteers took part in a clothing drive for New Beginnings Church. 

Chevelle Davis Pridgett, who led the drive, said volunteers sorted and bagged tons of of things of clothing.

“Pastor Joe Fields and members of his volunteer staff were so comfortable to receive our donation,” she said. “They serve so many individuals within the Lewisville community and the encompassing areas. It was great to tour their facility and see what they must offer those in need.”

She said all of the volunteers who showed up to assist made the work fun. She thanked them and people who donated clothing to the cause. 

“We couldn’t have made this occur without you. … That’s what MLK Day of Service is all about.”

Members of the Church in Prosper, Texas, served at a neighborhood food pantry called Neighbors Nourishing Neighbors. Several volunteers took inventory on the warehouse.

“We were in a position to create a lot space on their shelves by restacking and reorganizing different items,” said Angela Johnson, a JustServe coordinator in Prosper. 

Volunteers also served patrons, filled orders, loaded cars, and cleared space upstairs within the constructing to permit for future office space and additional storage.

“Everyone enjoyed the atmosphere there and delighted in the enjoyment of service,” Johnson said.

In Paris, Texas, around 30 members of the Church and a number of other members of the local NAACP gathered on Jan. 14 to clear trees and brush at Greenwood Cemetery.

The cemetery is an old and neglected African American cemetery with roughly 700 grave sites spanning across seven acres, explained a Facebook post concerning the service project. “There remains to be much clearing to be done, and the volunteers hope to be back soon and would really like to ask other community members to hitch within the project,” said the post.

After the volunteers worked together for 3 hours on the cemetery, they joined together to eat a lunch provided by the NAACP.

In Hilton Head, South Carolina, JustServe volunteers cleaned up debris that a storm had scattered throughout a neighborhood cemetery. The volunteers beautified the grounds together at Amelia White Cemetery, which is a historic Gullah cemetery — the Gullah are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live within the southeastern U.S.

In Leesburg, Virginia, volunteers and Latter-day Saints took part in a donation drive and brought canned food, hats, gloves, coats and scarves to a neighborhood elementary school as a part of the county’s thirty third annual MLK celebration.

JustServe volunteers in Canton, Georgia, put together tons of of plastic utensil kits for Must Ministries. The kits were in an effort to help the charitable organization serve meals to those facing food insecurity.

Around 300 volunteers in Gila Valley, Arizona, unloaded, sorted and delivered over 30,000 kilos of food and diapers to 10 local nonprofit organizations. The volunteers included Church members and full-time missionaries, along with people from The Way Church and Safford High School National Honor Society and the community.

Teenagers from a JustServe highschool club in Indianapolis, Indiana, organized their very own service project. The youth got here from Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith congregations and met together, planned and arranged the hassle.

The youth searched JustServe.org and chosen Wheeler Mission Center for Women and Children for his or her project. The 22 volunteers served lunches to women in two shifts, took down Christmas decorations and put them away, moved tables, cleaned the gym floor, sanitized the kids’s play area and other spring cleansing tasks.

Each youth invited a friend to hitch them for the service, in order that they may all get to know more youth from different faiths while serving together in the neighborhood. 

A Facebook post from JustServe Indiana said, “What a present: helping tons of and forging friendships all in at some point. Our future is in great hands with these outstanding young adults.”