The center of Berkeley’s celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday will be the awards breakfast, now in its second year, but there is a host of other activities focused on the National Day of Service. The Day of Service was started by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for his first inauguration, four years ago. This year, the official day is on Saturday, but many events are being held on Monday as well, which is both a national holiday and the date of Obama’s second inauguration.
Here are some of the main Berkeley Day of Service opportunities. Most of the links lead to signup pages for specific events. If you know of others, please let tell us in the comments below.
Garber Park On Saturday morning from 10 a.m., the Garber Park Stewards will be planting trees and removing non-native vegetation in Garber Park, uphill from the Claremont Hotel.
Clean up West Berkeley and San Pablo Park Also on Saturday morning from 10 a.m., the Covenant Worship Center will be cleaning trash from the streets and from “our beloved San Pablo Park.”
Milk-for-Kids Volunteers will hand out flyers for the Milk-for-Kids project and urge shoppers at partner stores in Berkeley to purchase milk coupons. Organizers stress this is a kid-friendly effort: “It’s easy to do; kids really “get it” and shoppers love them.” Last year, volunteers encouraged shoppers to buy more than 500 coupons on the Day of Service.
Shoreline clean-up East Bay Regional Parks is concentrating its efforts, unsurprisingly, on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline. Volunteers will assist in restoration work and removing invasive plants.
Want to know what’s on in Berkeley? Have an event you want people to know about? Visit Berkeleyside’s Events Calendar. We encourage organizations to submit their events.
