January 12, 2010

West Virginia - Those looking for opportunities to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King by volunteering in their community on January 18 don’t have to look far.

With the MLK Day of Service just days away, Volunteer West Virginia, the state’s Commission for National and Community Service, is asking all individuals and organizations to visit www.volunteerwv.org to browse for opportunities to serve in their community or to post their own MLK Day service opportunity.

Volunteerwv.org offers individuals and organizations the opportunity to post and search for volunteer opportunities statewide.

“Serving in your community on January 18th honors Dr. King’s dream of advancing equality, promoting social justice, and establishing opportunities for all,” Kim Tieman, executive director for Volunteer West Virginia, said. “He taught us that everyone has a role in making our communities what they ought to be. We can best represent Dr. King’s vision and dream by making MLK Day ‘a day on, not a day off.’”

Dr. King sought to forge the common ground on which people from all walks of life could join together to address important community issues. Working alongside individuals of all ages, races and backgrounds, Dr. King encouraged Americans to come together to strengthen communities, alleviate poverty, and acknowledge dignity and respect for all human beings.

Below are highlights of AmeriCorps projects planned for the MLK Day of Service.

• American Red Cross - AmeriCorps members are recruiting volunteers to pass out door hangers about fire prevention to neighborhoods in six surrounding counties from the project's headquarters in Parkersburg. The door hangers will include tips for preventing home fires, cooking safety, making escape plans, and the importance of having working smoke detectors.  The group plans to cover 100 homes in each county, resulting in 600 homes in the area receiving information about fire safety. 
• Appalachian Forest Heritage Area - AmeriCorps members and volunteers are planning an afternoon of children's activities focused on diversity and Martin Luther King's vision and dream.
• Building a Community of Champions: Monroe County - Each day of the week, beginning on Martin Luther King Day, AmeriCorps members and volunteers will be doing a "Mix It Up at Lunch" day. The event is a simple call to action: take a new seat in the cafeteria. By making the move, students can cross the invisible lines of school division, meet new people and make new friends, which promotes the vision and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King.
• Coal Heritage Highway Authority - AmeriCorps members will be reading children's books about Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy to children in Logan County.
• Playmates Child Development Centers - Members at the Westmoreland and Lavalette sites are working on a project to have children help build corn hole games. The games will then be donated to Autism Services for use at their facility. Members at the Huntington site will read "The Crayon Box that Talked" and the "Box of Crayons" poem to preschool children, explaining how different colors can get along. Children will then make portaits of themselves and put themselves on a giant crayon box mural for the wall. Members at the Child Development Academy will be working on classroom and community efforts to bring awareness to differences and likenesses in individuals and how we can all get along together.
• Southern Appalachian Labor School (SALS) - AmeriCorps members and volunteers will be accepting food donations for local food pantries and working with construction crews and Youth Build workers to complete "Green Equipment Labs" at various sites. Members and volunteers will also be finishing a green house, compost bins, and starting some plant boxes for the beginnings of a community garden.

For more information on Martin Luther King events in West Virginia, visit www.mlkday.gov or www.volunteerwv.org. Interested individuals may also call Volunteer West Virginia at (304) 558-0111 or (800) WV-HELPS.

Volunteer West Virginia, the state’s Commission for National & Community Service, is a state agency dedicated to promoting the spirit of volunteerism throughout West Virginia by enabling West Virginians of all ages to strengthen their communities through service and volunteerism.

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