Community Honors MLK with Day of Service
Volunteers got a lot done today in and around the
Bethlehem community center, as they turned their a day off into an early morning of work.
Painting, picking up trash, cleaning out storage bins and gardening were all jobs done by volunteers at the Bethlehem
Community Center in
Chattanooga this morning.
Elizabeth Schaefeer said, "We have the day off and this is how we are spending it."
Proud to honor
Martin Luther King Jr. on this day, volunteers say they wanted to live out his message by helping others.
Keiasia
Fields said, "I'm volunteering because i love people and i want to help them."
One of the
Bethlehem Center directors,
Brian Allen, says the work of volunteers will help the center help others in economic skills, job skills and all different tasks that people need to sustain themselves and a family.
Allen says today's volunteers are also a strong asset to the future operations of the Bethlehem Center.
"We thrive on volunteers at the Bethlehem center. We're small staffed so when we have bunches that come and help out and do this kind of project, it goes a long way," Allen said.
Families say they see the importance providing help- at all ages.
Melina Choate brought her young daughter
London to help out this morning. Choate says,"She's going to be five this year and one of the things she wanted to do was give and be a blessing to other people."
Fields says she felt called to help people in need this morning as well.
She said, "God put us on this earth to help people and love them."
That was the very teaching
Doctor King himself died for.
NewsChannel 9 also talked to people going to see the movie
Selma today.
Parents said
MLK day was a perfect opportunity to teach their children what they went though when they were their age.
George Maffett said, "
It's just what I was hoping to show my daughter what we as black families and the black community have gone through to achieve what we have now."