SitemapAround the Mahoning Valley, volunteers put Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message of peace and community to good use with a series of community service projects.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a federal holiday recognizing the birth of the Civil Rights leader. While the day is in remembrance of King’s efforts to end segregation, volunteers also paid tribute to the leader by working to improve their own communities.
Habitat for Humanity volunteers assisted with painting, landscaping and other work at a house in Warren. Meanwhile, volunteers with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) boarded up vacant houses and cleaned up yards and streets in the Wick Park and Crandall Park neighborhoods.
“For the neighborhoods, it gets rid of trash. The people living next door, the neighbors who have to live with the trash every day… it improves their quality of life,” said YNDC volunteer Gia Cappabianca.
By noon, the YNDC group had already filled 200 bags of trash.
Rashone Oliver brought her three school-aged kids along for the day, helping clean up trash and overgrown trees and shrubs around abandoned homes.
“In order for us to have success in our future, we have to start bringing our kids up and helping them realize that revitalizing… is important. This is very important for us, so instilling it in my kids is one of the best parts,” she said.
Elsewhere, teams of American Red Cross volunteers installed new smoke alarms for residents in Austintown as part of the agency’s “Home Fire Campaign.” The campaign is an effort to decrease fire-related deaths.
“Trying to protect everybody in the community isn’t a possibility, but we want to install as many smoke alarms as we possibly can,” said volunteer Gary Offerdahl.
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