Community Corner

Easy Ways to Serve on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Find a MLK Day of Service project in your Patch.

By Shannon Morgan

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service. MLK Day of Service calls citizens to work together to better their communities in the spirit of King. Participating is as easy as entering a ZIP code and locating a project.

Here are some easy ways you can serve your Maryland community on Monday:

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Donate Food
Pick up a few extra items at the grocery store and drop them off at your local food bank. There are also local organizations planning collection drives for Monday. Hopeworks for Howard County is collecting items for their Special Items Pantry Drive in Columbia and the Manna Food Center in Montgomery County is collecting non-perishable goods at the Brookville Market in Chevy Chase and at Giant grocery stores throughout the county.

Donate Time
The Montgomery County Volunteer Center is hosting a service project and volunteer fair at the Bethesda North Marriott Conference on Monday. But even if you can’t make it to Bethesda, you can still take inspiration from their list of projects. Here are few ideas:

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  • Write a letter to the troops.
  • Visit a senior center or veterans hospital.
  • Walk dogs at an animal shelter.
  • Help out at a soup kitchen.
  • Clean up a stream or park.
TELL US: How will you mark Monday as “a day on, not a day off?”


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