Education

Motivated to Volunteer

By Katie Ash — January 21, 2009 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Although I didn’t have a chance to volunteer on MLK Day this year (I spent the day traveling up and down the Columbia River Gorge right outside of Portland instead), the idea that it is intended to be a day of service is never far from my mind. And apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks that way. This AP article details how many people across the country spent Martin Luther King Day giving back to their communities.

Partly spurred by encouragement from (now) President Obama, some events, such as the Greater Philadelphia MLK Day of Service, experienced record high turnouts of volunteers. Others volunteered at homeless shelters or spent a few hours picking up trash.

It’s easy to spend the extra day sleeping in and catching up on things you’d like to do—like I did, but inspiring to hear about the ways that others spent the day off doing something positive for their communities.

Looking ahead, it’s worth asking: How can we use this new spirt of volunteerism to improve our schools? What kinds of volunteers do schools need the most?

A version of this news article first appeared in the Motivation Matters blog.