Martin Luther King Jr. - Day of Service
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I know for many of you, this is a day off work but many Americans have transformed this day into something a bit more substantial (which I think would have made Dr. King very happy). Today has been declared a day of community service since 1996.
Philadelphia, PA — Some 60,000 people of all ages and backgrounds throughout the Philadelphia region volunteered today in more than 600 service projects in the 13th annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service, according to Todd Bernstein, founder and director. The 2008 Greater Philadelphia King Day of Service is again the largest King Day service event in the nation.
The Greater Philadelphia King Day of Service drew some 1,000 participants overall when it began in 1996 and has grown exponentially ever since. The 2008 King Day of Service includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. In 1999, the Points of Light Foundation in Washington, D.C recognized the project as a national Point of Light. Today’s estimated turnout adds approximately 5,000 volunteers to last year’s record numbers.
The national King Day of Service was created in 1994 through federal legislation co-authored by former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Harris Wofford and Georgia Congressman John Lewis, both veterans of the Civil Rights movement with Dr. King. The act called for the transformation of the King federal holiday from simply a “day off” into a “day on” of active citizenship and service.
