MLK Day Committee Seeks Community Help

As one local group works to plan the 1st annual Scotch Plains-Fanwood MLK Day of Service, it's seeking help from the community to make it happen.

"A few people have volunteered to be on the steering committee to work with us on how this will come together, but we're still forming," said Michelle Abraham, co-chair of the event.

The idea for a local MLK Day originated when Abraham and her husband, the Rabbi Joel Abraham at Temple Sholom, were seeking MLK Day volunteer opportunities for their family this past January.

"We got really excited about doing something and we looked and there was nothing in this area we could do with our family," Abraham said. "That's when we decided that if we wanted it for our family, then we figured others wanted it for their families and we needed to make it happen."

Joel Abraham, former president of the Ministerium, used his connections to put together an initial planning meeting, and from there, the first meeting to explore an MLK Day for Scotch Plains and Fanwood was held last month. Representatives from both towns' mayor's offices were there, as were representatives from the school superintendent's office, and other community groups and organizations.

Those in attendance brainstormed what they thought would work in Scotch Plains and Fanwood and how to structure leadership teams to make it happen.

During that meeting, Michelle and Laura McQuaid were volunteered to be co-chairs. Now, they're looking for community members to assist in the effort.

"We're not quite desperately looking for people to help put this program together, but we do need people who want to volunteer just a few hours a month," Abraham said. "It's not an extensive amount of work. We created it that way because we knew people didn't have a lot of time."

The group has already made some good progress.

Joel Abraham met with the organizer of Summit's MLK Day earlier this year to learn more about their model and its success.

From studying that and other towns' events across the nation, Abraham said they have tentatively decided to organize the day into four activities: 1) a one-shot program, where volunteers come in and do a specific activity like a mailing or painting; 2) a training model, where a service organization provides training to those who are interested in volunteering there on a longer-term basis; 3) a make-and-take event, where families with younger children come and complete a project like planting a flower in a pot, then take it to a local nursing home and visit with someone there; and 4) a peer-education option where an organization runs an hour-long seminar to explain what they do.

There will also be an opening program that will features speakers talking about the importance of Martin Luther King Jr. and the purpose of the day.

"One of the things that's really important to planning this is that we put it into context," Abraham said. "The real goal of this program is to encourage the spirit of volunteerism all over Scotch Plains and Fanwood, and that people will develop relationships with organizations where they'll want to do more."

Abraham said groups of all types are encouraged to get involved with MLK Day. In addition to families, she said she hopes groups like the Boy Scouts, Lions Club and Newcomers Club will participate as well. There will also be an opportunity, she said, for groups to plan their own events for the day.

"If one of the high school service groups wants to do a runathon for issues in Darfur, they could run it on that day as well," she said.

Abraham said she hopes to bring together planning committees by the end of August.

Those interested in helping, should e-mail Abraham at msamaje@gmail.com.