As city offices, schools and some restaurants closed their doors Monday morning, community members got to work on this Martin Luther King Day of service.
Community members, college students, and volunteers young and old crowded inside the Lubbock Roots Historical Arts Center, 1719 Avenue A, to sign up for community service jobs. Jobs included cleaning up around the center and the Caviel Museum of African American History. Other tasks included yard work, picking up trash, cleaning windows and arranging photos.
Even Starbucks chipped in, providing free coffee and breakfast snacks to the volunteers for the sixth year in a row.
Leon Williams spent his morning volunteering. He works with LISD, and shared that he was thrilled when he found out staff did not have to report to work on MLK Day so that he could do this instead.
“Dr. King literally gave his life, and so at the minimum, we give a day of service. It seems small by comparison to me, so it’s really good to see that we are honoring his legacy at least in this effort,” said Williams. “To do this, it was a no brainer.”
Shirley Green, chairperson of the Lubbock Roots Historical Arts Council, helped organize this year’s day of service. Former director of the council, Eric Strong, passed away March 11, 2017. Green shared that seeing the community members continue to come together was also a way of honoring his life as well.
“It was all started by Eric Strong, but we will continue to mission, the vision and we appreciate every organization in the Lubbock community, the different organizations that have supported us, and we want to say thank you very much,” Green said. “We will continue, and so hopefully if all goes well next year we’ll be doing it again bigger and better.”
To learn more about the council, or to get involved, visit their website here.
President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, but the first National MLK holiday was observed three years later,1986. This year, the holiday falls on what would have been Dr. King’s 89th birthday.
