2024 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY OF SERVICE
January 15th was a day of service for Keystone SMILES, AmeriCorps members, Oil City’s Youth Philanthropy, and high school volunteers from Keystone High School. Keystone SMILES AmeriCorps hosted 3 agency sponsored projects hosted in Knox, Oil City and Girard, PA . Other members served at a variety of sites throughout Mercer and Erie Counties.
Knox Day of Service, Clarion County
41 staff, AmeriCorps members and a volunteer from Mustard Seed Ministry came together to prepare for Agriculture Safety Days that will be held in May. Kits were put together for different learning modules which will be used to teach children all about Environmental/ Farm Safety. Over 5,565 kits were put together which included items for sun safety, first aid, gardening, hearing, stress and Lyme disease. When finished staff and members from Knox and Oil City gathered at Foxburg Pizza Shop to fellowship and to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King JR.
Oil City Day of Service, Venango County
MLK Day of Service in Oil City took 2 days to complete. The House of Trades, AmeriCorps team came together with the staff and members from the Weed and Seed program in Oil City to help established their new Hope21 service site. It started on Friday by moving all of the racks, clothing and supplies from storage to the new location at Grace United Methodist Church in Oil City. On Monday, 10 AmeriCorps members and staff worked together to assemble clothing racks, sort clothing and then hang everything up. Even 2 AmeriCorps members from Eire traveled to help out. Hope21 will be a non-profit clothing boutique that offers free clothing to anyone in the community that is in need…no questions asked. Their grand re-opening was February 5th.
Erie Day of Service, Erie County
10 AmeriCorps members plus volunteers in Erie came together for a day of service. The day was spent packaging books for kindergarten through fourth grade students for the One Book, One Child event which will be held at a later date. Equipment was put together for the new sensory room at Elk Valley Elementary School in Girard School District; clothing was folded and organized for the Community Clothing Closet and finally members helped to stock the community/school food pantry. A special thanks to Sheree McConnell, a Keystone SMILES AmeriCorps alum and now working with Community Schools, United Way. She will be hosting 4 additional community engagement activities soon and will be looking for AmeriCorps members to volunteer. Dates and times will be announced.