Photo Gallery: MLK Day Service Project

About 500 volunteers showed up Saturday and also Sunday to work on .

They repaired houses and worked in yards of low-income senior citizens in the Oakhurst area.

, with openings still available for morning and afternoon shifts. You can just show up at the Solarium in Hill Street at the beginning of the shifts.

The three-day project attracted the attention of Fox 5 News.

LeeAnn Harvey, volunteer organizer for the City of Decatur, sent out an email Sunday describing the project.

I look on the glorious blue sky and beautiful weather this weekend and think about last year’s “Snowmageddon” that didn’t deter over 1,200 volunteers from coming out to volunteer during Martin Luther King Jr. Service Project to do home repairs and yard work for senior citizens. We had over 500 volunteers come out yesterday and they did amazing work! It’s not too late to join us today or tomorrow.

I saw a commercial about a big MLK holiday sale and couldn’t help but think that many people might not understand the significance of this holiday. “In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday as a national day of service …, the MLK Day of Service is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service – a ‘day on, not a day off’." (http://mlkday.gov/about/serveonkingday.php)

Why go to the mall, when you could spend your time making a difference to a senior citizen! The MLK Jr. Service Project is sponsored by the Decatur Preservation Alliance in partnership with the City of Decatur and other organizations.

Volunteers may work one or more of the remaining shifts:

Monday, January 16: 9am to 1pm and 1pm to 5pm

Volunteers will meet at the Solarium at the Community Center of South Decatur, 321 W. Hill St. in the Oakhurst section of Decatur (30030), at least a half-hour before the start of their shift.  If you will be bringing any youth who will not be accompanied by their parent/guardian, please download the release form and print a separate form for each of the youth. The release form is available at www.decaturga.com/mlk. 

Everyone, adults and youth, must have a signed release form. Anyone under 18-years-old must have a release form signed by a parent/guardian in order to participate in the project. Volunteers must be a minimum of 12-years-old, unless they are volunteering through a supervised organization, such as Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts.

We will have a light breakfast and box lunches available on Monday.

You can help with:

• Home repairs
• Yard work (we would love some skilled gardeners who could lead a team of volunteer to join us!)
• De-clutter homes and yards of “former treasures” that have been accumulating for decades
• Clean gutters
• If you have a truck, we could use help with transporting some of the junk removed from homes to some of the dumpsters we have strategically placed throughout Oakhurst.

We are striving to make this project more environmentally friendly, so please bring a reusable water bottle with you. Since we will have a limited number of tools and work gloves will be available, it would be extremely helpful to bring supplies with you (work gloves; hammers, saws, drills, and other tools; rakes or other yard work supplies; etc.). Please be certain to mark your tools for easy identification.

If you have any questions, please call Lee Ann Harvey at 770-652-8593 or just show up! All volunteers are invited to attend a celebration cookout on Monday, January 16, at 5:00 p.m. at the Solarium.