Volunteers answer Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to serve

For a day each January, many Americans honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. by volunteering in their community, preparing meals, cleaning parks or helping neighbors recover from disasters.

A federal holiday, held the third Monday in January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was designated a national day of service in 1994. As a pastor and leader of the Civil Rights Movement, King’s powerful sermons and speeches reflected America’s ideals and called on its citizens to serve others.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” King asked.

On the holiday, celebrated on January 20 this year, 550 George Washington University students, faculty and staff will prepare emergency kits for seniors. Amy Cohen, executive director of the school’s Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service, said volunteering reflects the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement and shows students “how service builds democratic values, builds community connections and community networks.”

The day of service encourages Americans to volunteer at other times as well, school and nonprofit officials say. Volunteerism in the U.S. increased 5.1 percent between 2022 and 2023, the largest single-year increase on record, according to AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service.

At St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, Virginia, students will volunteer in partnership with Rise Against Hunger and pack 14,000 nutritious and easy-to-prepare meals. “That the younger students can see that their commitment impacts the world beyond themselves and the school is really valuable,” said Bob Troy, the school’s civic engagement director.

At High Point University in North Carolina, 1,000 students, faculty and staff will work in communities to clean yards, paint houses and deliver heaters, said University President Nido Qubein.

“We are focused on the notion that one-third of your life ought to be invested in learning, one-third invested in earning, and one-third of your life ought to be invested in serving,” Qubein said. “It’s really giving for the sake of giving.”

Volunteers with L.A. Works in California will make blankets and prepare meals and hygiene kits for people affected by ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles.

Other volunteer efforts will beautify a park in Newark and assemble Literacy Kits for children and adults learning to read in New Jersey. Points of Light, a global nonprofit based in the U.S., works with partners to support the day of service. One partner, HandsOn Twin Cities, will host a book drive in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota, and another, Activate Good, will distribute food to the hungry in North Carolina.

While Points of Light’s Katie Stearns says the day of service provides a boost to nonprofits’ efforts to improve communities, “The real win happens when everyone who serves that day understands volunteering is an essential action they can take every day.”

Or, as King said in a 1968 sermon, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.”