Press release from United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County:
Join UNC Asheville, Mission Health, and United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County on Monday, January 21, 2019 for their Second Annual ‘Partnership for Change MLK Day of Service’ event. Building on a national movement to honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through service, this community partnership encourages local residents to make Dr. King’s birthday “a day ON, not a day OFF”, by volunteering their time to support local nonprofits and schools. With 14 service projects to choose from throughout Asheville and Buncombe County, the partnership has created a wide variety of ways to get involved.
“The Partnership For Change MLK Day of Service is an absolutely beautiful display of what can happen and should happen when we come together with and for each other in our community to truly live out the full intent of Dr. King’s Dream,” shares Mission Health’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director Lakesha McDay. “His vision, his expectation of us all to care for one another as people, to take care of those who may not be able to take care of themselves, and to celebrate the history, the memories, and the voices before us, with us and yet to come. Mission Heath, UNC Asheville and United Way, serving our community in commemoration of Dr. King’s birthday and his life’s work is an honor.”
The media is invited to visit the following locations:
- Green Opportunities Beautification Day: Volunteers will assist Green Opportunities by touching up paint throughout the building, helping with prep-work in the community garden (weather permitting), organizing their reading corner, and more. Green Opportunities (GO) offers a combination of technical training, life skills training, and support services to unemployed and underemployed residents of Asheville and Buncombe County. Their training and employment programs empower members to overcome both personal and systemic barriers to employment. This project runs from 9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
- YMI Cultural Center Restoration: Volunteers will clean, organize and restore key areas within the YMI Cultural Center, the most celebrated African-American cultural institution in the region, which offers intriguing exhibitions, a VITA (volunteer income tax assistance) program, West African dance and drum classes and more. This project runs from 9:00 a.m. -11:00 a.m.
- Return to Burton Street with Hood Huggers International: Burton Street Community members are coming together with community volunteers to assist with the rebuilding of historical markers, an art creation, garden maintenance, mulching, trash pickup, library organization, and more. Hood Huggers International offers sustainable strategies for building support pillars for resilient historically African American neighborhoods, providing a framework for community capacity building and maintaining while increasing the effectiveness of existing service programs. This project will run in the afternoon from 1:30 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.
About United Way’s Volunteer Center, Hands On Asheville-Buncombe
Hands On Asheville-Buncombe, the volunteer center of United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County, makes it easy to get involved in meaningful volunteer opportunities with nonprofit organizations in Asheville and Buncombe County. Annually, United Way connects more than 3,000 people to hundreds of opportunities. For more information, visit handsonasheville.org or contact us at (828) 255-0696.
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