Martin Luther King Day Service Project Slideshow

This year for the Martin Luther King Day Holiday, the Volunteer Center outreached to area agencies registered on our online volunteer opportunities database 1-800volunteer.org. Agencies were asked to create one-day projects for volunteers to attend. 8 agencies stepped up to organize or support events - Bridge of Hope, Monterey Bay Horsemanship and Therapeutic Center, The Homeless Youth Coffee House at the Red Church, The Homeless Garden Project, Loaves and Fishes, Quail Hollow Ranch, and Save our Shores.

The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive. Nearly 400 individuals answered the call to serve in Santa Cruz County! Local residents turned out to serve meals to the homeless, share their time with nursing home residents, pull invasive plants, or support handicapped youth programs. A number of spontaneous volunteer groups stepped in to organize beach clean-ups including two area mom’s groups, The Redwood Non-Violence Community, and the Santa Cruz Montessori School.

It is our hope the building momentum for service will translate into an increased number of long-term volunteers for area non-profits. Volunteers are needed everyday and are vital to keeping area non-profits and public services running. Many programs in this county simply could not exist without willing community members sharing their time and talents.To see our volunteers in action on MLK Day watch the slide show below.




To volunteer in Santa Cruz County visit us at www.1-800volunteer.org

Martin Luther King Day Media Buzz

We have spent the past 24 hours attempting to keep up with our phone lines. On the other end of each call has been a caring community member interested in stepping forward to give of their time on Martin Luther King Day. The national call to service seems to have re-ignited a spirit for community giving and the media has lead the charge to keep volunteerism at the forefront of our attention.

Time Magazine reports their top news story of the week as "Obama's National Call to Service" and issued a special report this week on "The Call to Serve". Earlier in the week, on the Colbert Report Steven Colbert chided, "...And, Alan Khazei wants Americans to volunteer!" after which he berated the Director of Be the Change.org for encouraging our nation to join in the movement to serve others. Today the Huffington Post is awash in service headlines ranging from the Facebook Pledge to service, Starbucks new "You In?" Campaign offering up free cups of coffee to all customers willing to pledge 5 hours of their time, to blogger and novelist Trey Ellis suggesting you should "Volunteer your Fear Away".

As Ellis states, "When times are most troubled it's easiest to close yourself off from the suffering of others. But what if we zig instead of zag? Instead of wrapping ourselves up in fear, and hunkering down until this depression blows over, .....What if we capitalize on this New Year and this new administration and pledge ourselves to helping those with less? If we all pitch in won't we all come out on the other side a little faster?"

Today we want to encourage our fellow non-profits to bask in their moment to shine as entities serving the greater good and can only be pleased that the Santa Cruz Community has chosen to "zig instead of zag" . Keep those phones ringing!

Local Media supporting the call to volunteer:

Sentinal Local News:
MLK Day not a day off for volunteers and non-profits

NPR
Answering the Call to Serve

The Volunteer Center Joins the National Call to Serve on Martin Luther King Day

We are highly inspired by the recent National Call to serve. As a nation, we are at a great crossroad. We find ourselves in a time of enormous need and yet great promise. Both the need and public enthusiasm are there to re-ignite a spirit of service. Here at the Volunteer Center we have been so pleased by the number of individuals who have recognized this need and come forward to donate their time to our local public services, non-profits, schools, and community programs. In this time of economic downturn, we have seen an increasing number of registered volunteers on our volunteer matching website, currently averaging up to 60 new registered volunteers and over 2000 new visitors each month searching for volunteer opportunities. We are fortunate that everyday individuals step up in expected and unexpected ways to be the difference in Santa Cruz County!

We invite community members to join us in the call to service on the Martin Luther King Holiday Jan 19th, 2009. For the past 14 years The MLK Holiday has been recognized not as a day off, but a day on. In an effort to support the national call to serve, General Powell unveiled www.USAService.org where Americans can sign up for projects or register their event. The Volunteer Centers in partnership with fellow non-profits in Santa Cruz County added a variety of volunteer opportunities to over 8000 other events happening across the country.

View MLK DAY Opportunities for Santa Cruz County HERE.

Projects include serving meals, refurbishing centers, collecting food and clothing, gardening and more. For more information as to how you can be of service on Jan 19th contact us at (831) 427-5070