January 15, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
Thousands of people across the country are gearing up to help soup kitchens, weatherize homes, paint homeless shelters and schools, and do other volunteer work on Monday as part of the annual Martin Luther King’s Birthday day of service.
“This year, we’re seeing more projects focused on helping those suffering during these tough economic times,” said Nicola Goren, acting chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that leads the service day.
Among the activities planned for Monday’s federal holiday, the agency said:
* The Campus Kitchens Project, a student hunger-relief organization, will sponsor events at more than a dozen colleges. Five hundred volunteers in Jersey City, N.J., will assemble kits of toiletries and clothing for people in domestic violence shelters or transitional housing facilities. A job fair in Lexington, Ky., will help participants develop online resumes and provide free business clothing to job seekers.
* Many nonprofit groups are also sponsoring discussions and public events to honor the Martin Luther King Jr.‘s legacy. The Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network, a prominent volunteer organization, will hold a daylong “virtual town hall” on a Web site that will feature live feeds of rallies and volunteer projects in cities including Atlanta, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento, St. Louis, and Washington.
A record number of volunteers turned out for last year’s day of service, which fell the day before President Obama’s inauguration. More than one million people worked on 13,000 projects in 2009, the national-service agency says.
Congress designated the King holiday a day of service in 1994.
