PhilaPhile

Martin Luther King Day of Service

If you are planning to attend the 2008 Martin Luther King Day of Service you should be thinking about where you will be volunteering. If you are going to organize a service event for that day you should know that the deadline for project registration is November 21st.

The first Martin Luther King Day of Service was held in Philadelphia in 1996. Since then Philadelphia has the largest turn-out of volunteers in the nation each year. Last year more than 55,000 people volunteered for 600 activities throughout the Greater Philadelphia area. What better way to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It's a fun and rewarding day that helps create a greater sense of community. For those of us blogging please lend a hand by writing about your upcoming MLK service day experience.

Martin Luther King Day of Service

Celebrating Martin Luther King Day of Service as a "day on not a day off" has become quite a tradition in the Philadelphia area. Philadelphia leads the nation in the number of volunteers, around 50,000, and has an incredibly organized system for matching volunteers with projects in the area. Yesterday, I spent some time at the Martin Luther King High School which is "ground zero" for the days events. There are a number of organizations handing out literature, running workshops, and completing various projects.

One incredible project at the high school was the construction of a house, that will be sent to Lafayette, LA and a playhouse that will be donated to Stenton Family Manor shelter. Habitat for Humanity and Youthbuild Philadelphia Charter School collaborated to build the house and playhouse. As the day went on many dignitaries came by to lend a hand.

After leaving Martin Luther King High School I met with some parents and students from Abington Friends School to put together packages of items to be delivered to Whosoever Gospel Mission and Rescue Home, Aid for Friends and Face to Face.

One of the goals for the MLK Day of Service is to encourage people to continue their volunteer service throughout the year. So, if you weren't able to participate yesterday you still have time to volunteer with a local organization. Everyone is welcome to participate in next years Day of Service as well. Any individual can register a project and recruit friends and family to participate.

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Philadelphia Neighborhood Information System

I attended a free classroom training course on the NIS at the University of Pennsylvania yesterday.NIS consist of 4 applications, neighborhoodBase, parcelBase, crimeBase, and muralBase. The data for the applications, except muralBase, are provided by the City of Philadelphia. Data for muralBase is supplied by the Mural Arts Program.

The training is easy to follow and pretty straightforward. I attended the introductory course, there is also an advanced class. The information is designed for use by non-profit organizations, community groups, and anyone interested in improving their neighborhood.

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Philadelphia 76ers

I was reading an article in yesterday's Daily News, "Dalembert worries about family members in Haiti", by Phil Jasner. Dalembert's family lives in Port-au-Prince and he has heard that his family is fine. But he's been unable to communicate with them directly and, undererstandably, he's worried. He's donating $20,000 to the Red Cross and the coach, Jim O'Brien, is donating $1,000. All donations are being matched by the NBA. What surprised me was that the total donated by the team was $22,500. Take away Dalembert's and O'Brien's donations and the rest of the team is donating $1,500. That's works out to about $100 per teammate.

If you were a fundraiser and your prospects were players on an NBA team I think you would expect the average donation would be more than $100. Especially when they are responding to a disaster in a teammate's hometown. Also, the article doesn't mention a contribution by the Philadelphia 76ers. I can't imagine their response would be so pitiful if a hurricane ripped through Iverson's hometown of Hampton, VA.

I'm trying to think of some reasons why there's not a better response. Maybe they don't know how devastating this natural disaster is for the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Maybe they don't know about the recent political strife in the country and how the hurricane has made an unstable country more dangerous. Maybe they're like the rest of us who are worn out by the limitless number of tragedies parading across our television screens daily. Despite this I think if I were a teammate of Dalembert's I would make a donation of at least $1,000.

If you think I'm way off base please let me know.