Nearly 50 years after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., local community members once again came out to participate in this year's 23rd Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service on Monday, Jan. 15.

Religious leaders, local politicians and community members gathered in Northwest Philadelphia to honor the legacy of King with a day of community service. Volunteers participated in several local projects in our area including at the Unitarian Society of Germantown and Henry H. Houston Elementary School.

Many families in this area attended the Woodmere Art Museum's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Festival. This year's festival included artmaking and storytelling. Denise Valentine paid tribute to the messages of Dr. King by performing traditional folktales and songs that illustrated the importance of family, community, and good character.

Attendees also had the opportunity to participate in a letter writing project. Philly Children’s March (PCM), an interracial network of families talking, playing, and rising up for racial justice, encouraged children and their families to to write letters to Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney.

Since 1996, some 700,000 volunteers across our region have celebrated Dr. King’s legacy by turning their community concerns into volunteer service and ongoing citizen action on King Day and beyond.

The Greater Philadelphia King Day of Service is organized through Global Citizen, a non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting civic engagement, community volunteering, civic responsibility, and sustained active citizenship among diverse groups, particularly young people. Global Citizen promotes democracy building, voter education, and participation, locally and globally.