SITE

The American Civil Rights movement was a shaping event in my life. Growing up in the 60’s and becoming aware of how far we all had to go convinced me that I was duty-bound to act as well as speak.. That sense of duty; that obligation to stand against bullies, was a gift my welder father gave me. I have carried that sense of obligation with me all these years.

I have a large framed poster of Dr. King with the full text of his “I Have a Dream” speech underneath. I’ve had it for years. When the Maine Commission for Community Service appeared on my computer asking for service proposals, right away my thoughts went to what 8 -10 year olds could actually do. Those are the kids we work with. I knew that one thing they are good at is acting. They do it all the time. And we already had a working relationship with Laura Guite at Central Maine Community Television. What better use of our kids talents than in front of a TV camera, advocating for people to do a “Day of Service” on January 18.

I e-mailed Laura Guite at CATV the next day, suggesting that we script a Public Service Announcement. She readily accepted and we were off and running. Of course, there were still other steps to take. Find a site. Create the setting. Select kids and quotes. Talk to them and their parents, making sure everyone was on the same page. Schedule it all.

It all came together at the Alfond Youth Center on a Monday afternoon Dec.14. With Martin Luther King and club logos as a backdrop, each child quoted their quote for the television audience, with the whole group of eight ending: “Make It a Day On and Not Just Another Day Off! Make It a Day of Service!

While the PSA is a nice script, there were a number of pieces which needed greater attention. First, it should have been shot in complete silence; the microphone if very sensitive, even to noise in the next room. And there should have been more than one take for all the kids. The presentation could have been more polished. Most of them rushed at the end of their task, wanting to end successfully, but also to have it over with.

Still and all, this public service piece promoting Martin Luther King Day as a Day of Service was televised through community TV outlets from Hallowell to Solon since Central Maine CATV has cooperative arrangements with neighboring cable providers.

But what counts the most is that eight children we are charged with educating know a whole lot more about why there is a public holiday on January 18 and who Martin Luther King was.

Steve Aucoin is the Unit Director of the North End Boys and Girls Club in Waterville and a guest blogger.

By Lucas Rumler

We have been called to remember Martin Luther King Jr. by participating in a day of service. For many of us no call forward was needed. Over a quarter of Americans volunteer in any given year with the average hours of service being around 50 a year. Many of us are doing what we can but there is still a need to reach out and recruit more volunteers to better serve America and our fellow man. As Martin Luther King, Jr. himself stated, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” Our task as organizers and volunteer managers of various remembrance events was to facilitate the ‘living’ of others.

Our project, which was in conjunction with the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine, was entitled “I Have a Dream” Café. The concept was to provide a platform for artistic expression in an inclusive setting. In addition, we wanted to reach out to Civil Rights Teams of local high schools, who could compete for micro-grants to start outreach programs in their schools. The Peace & Justice Center made many of our tasks easy– they located the venue for us and had already successfully run the Café in years past. We needed to publicize the event, arrange the facilities, and schedule volunteers and presenters. Most of the preliminary work was handled by our core team of AmeriCorps volunteers to varying degrees of success. Our efforts to line up Civil Rights Teams from the local high schools was fairly unsuccessful. Out of eight high schools contacted, only one was able to create a presentation (due primarily to a truncated schedule after Winter Break). The Café was originally scheduled for Sunday January 18th with a contingency date in case of snowstorms being January 19th. This being Maine, the untimely snowstorm in January was inevitable. We had to reschedule the event until the next day. Honestly I was very pessimistic about the turnout and the prospects for the event and thought it was going to be a dismal failure.

The day of the project we were joined by more volunteers who helped us set up the event and everyone brought a potluck dish to share. The turnout at the Peace & Justice Center for the first part of the program was more robust than I had expected and my optimism was renewed. By the time the evening was over we had over 55 guests and 11 performances ranging from poetry readings to covered songs and original compositions. The highlight of the event for me was the Old Town Civil Rights Team’s spoken word presentation. It was compelling to hear the voices of a younger generation committed to the cause of social justice. When the event was over everyone pitched in to clean up and put away the chairs including random audience members. The event was a success.

It took 10 volunteers nearly 100 hours to plan for and host this event. By the time it was over our ranks had swollen to around 20 if but briefly. Some people contributed only 2-3 minutes in helping put away chairs but the amount of time it saved us was much greater than that. If you give people the opportunity to volunteer they will. Only then can one start ‘living;’ together we can achieve Dr. King’s vision of a peaceful and just society.

Lucas Rumler is an AmeriCorps*VISTA member with Communities for Children and Youth at City of Bangor Health and Community Services and a guest blogger.

By Noble Smith

These past few weeks have been momentous for this country capped by two life-long memories – President-elect Obama’s and the Mrs. Obama’s participatory, hands-on involvement with activities surrounding Martin Luther King Day and the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States the following day. These two events will have significant short and sustaining long-term impacts for volunteers and for non-profits nationally and here in Maine.

Just prior to those two spectaculars, the Maine Commission for Community Service reviewed the impact of recent volunteer service in the State of Maine, statistics of which have huge economic, social, ethnic and historic implications, namely:

• With data compiled between 2005 – 2007, 356,000 volunteers dedicate 44.5 million hours of service annually;
• This volunteer service has an estimated economic contribution for volunteer hours served in Maine exceeding $868,000,000 annually;
• More than 9,100 Maine residents participate in national service (AmeriCorps, VISTA,, and Senior Corps) activities each year through 29 projects and programs throughout state;
• The average volunteer hours per Maine resident equals 41.6 hours.

Concurrently and echoing President Obama’s call to national service, AmeriCorps alum and former Secretary of State, Colin Powell reiterated the President’s urging for all Americans to be part of “Renew America Together”, a commitment for everyone “to make a lasting pledge to serve their communities.”

As a country and, indeed, certainly manifested here in Maine, the mandates will be many, varied, more exacting, yet exciting and will add measurably to the short and long-term effectiveness of Maine current and future volunteer initiatives.

But to measure up to the challenges ahead, all of us involved in the volunteer world – staff, organizers, leaders, Commissioners and volunteers themselves – need to step back, assess and reassess our involvements, our effectiveness and whether we are meeting both individual and organizational benchmarks and goals.

President Obama’s commitment to increased national service, the pending implementation of the Hatch Kennedy legislation, and the increasing numbers of citizens who are volunteering – young and old – all of these factors will have an almost immediate impact on our societies AND on our individual and collective abilities to coup with a greatly enhanced influx.

Are we prepared to receive, manage and effectively utilize our forthcoming volunteer workforce?

Each non-profit, those government organizations and private sector businesses who rely upon volunteers must address that question and set in motion a process of evaluating and putting in motion whatever corrective steps are necessary, a process that must also include volunteers as partners and co-equals.

Volunteer aspirations, staff and professional attitudes and skills and non-profits overall are quickly recognizing that changing mandates and their abilities to exceed minimum objectives have become quintessential. There is an enthusiasm, an excitement and a feeling of “yes we can” all of which are beginning to invade the volunteer world.

However, assessment and planning procrastination must not be allowed to fester! With the advent of enthusiastic and strong national leadership coupled with an increasingly powerful volunteer performance in Maine, we are in a handful of states that leads the nation’s volunteer accomplishments.

Maine already provides many volunteer models for other states to replicate and we now have a perfect opportunity to gain another upward step – but it requires the active and participatory involvement of all who are part of the volunteer movement.

Noble Smith is a Commissioner with the Maine Commission for Community Service and a featured blogger.

By Julie D. Mulkern

With my turn to post landing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I thought it apt to post opportunities for all of us to get involved. A day of service is a way to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s life and leadership by participating in community service to helps others. Americans of all ages will celebrate Dr. King with service projects that strengthen our communities. Maybe you will donate to Goodwill, give blood, or help a local food pantry. Whatever you choice to do, know that great things happen when we all work together! Please follow this link to find MLK service opportunities in Maine:
http://www.usaservice.org/page/event/search_results?orderby=day&state=ME&country=US&limit=100&radius_unit=miles.

Julie D. Mulkern is the Development Director at WinterKids and is a featured blogger.

By Melissa Boyd

I had heard the words undoing racism since my early twenties as a community activist and I thought at that time that I was working towards that end. It was not until a few years later when I found myself attending an Undoing Racism workshop with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (www.pisab.org) that I realized I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

The two and a half day workshop not only tore at everything I thought I knew it gave me an understanding of my own white privilege. That’s right I said white privilege. Now if you are reading this you may ask what exactly is white privilege? According to the dictionary definition White privilege is the advantages enjoyed by white persons beyond that which is commonly experienced by non-white people in those same social, political, and economic spaces (nation, community, workplace, income, etc.). It differs from racism or prejudice in that a person benefiting from white privilege does not necessarily hold racist beliefs or prejudices themselves and can be, as is often the case, unaware of his or her privilege.

However, what I came to find in the workshop was that we all have been conditioned to be racist as a function of the social construct of our society. If that was true and from what I experienced it is, how could I work to undo this injustice? Well, I joined a white privilege brown bag lunch series to discuss my own white privilege–that is how did I get ahead or get where I wanted to be as a result of my skin color. I urge everyone to read this brief article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack written by Peggy McIntosh.

Two exampled Peggy gives are: 1.) I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented. (2.) I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.

What I have committed to is working to undo racism in my everyday life. The most powerful thing as a white person is to call racism when I see it and pointing out injustice. Over the past several years in Maine we have heard of children being singled out and some violent acts in communities as a result of racism. This is not only upsetting but even more concerning is that more people are not standing out and standing up to this injustice. In my experience being involved in undoing racism I have been to meetings with all white people and asked if we were going to do anything on MLK Day for the children and was told we do not have children of color in our community so why would we?

This is racism and is a continuation of the institutional racism which exists in our society. This only exacerbates the problem and creates another racist generation. I am happy to report that because I spoke out that community now had activities around MLK Day and cultural diversity trainings. I challenge each of you to look at your own white privilege and be brave enough to stand up and speak out when you see injustice.

It seem only fitting to close with a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. “

Melissa Boyd is a Commissioner on the Maine Commission for Community Service and a featured blogger.

By Ruth Saint Amand
The planning process for our event has been an interesting one. With the high cost of fuel and gas and a lagging economy, we wanted to do an event that would benefit the community, adults and children as well. Something to entice the kids was the easy part, with the availability of an events trailer, thanks to a local church, that includes a bounce house, games and a pop corn machine. We then added a resource fair- information for adults on everything from cutting heating costs to how to apply for food stamps, as well as demonstrations for young (karate) and “old” (cutting heating costs and A Matter of Balance). We are also taking the opportunity to collect hats, mittens, scarves; old cell phones and; nonperishable foods. The final component of our event is a fundraising effort to help the United Way of Kennebec Valley through their Heat Helpers Program, a fund available to help people in need this winter that don’t quite qualify for the traditional assistance programs. Though the event is free to the public and to participants in our resource fair, donation cans will be prominent that day along with a raffle to raise funds for this worthy cause.

Our biggest challenge has been to not let this event run away with us! The response for the resource tables turned out much better than we had expected, a good reminder that people do consider it a day on, not a day off! It’s tempting however, to continue to add more and more components, like coat collections and a food sale, but for a first year event, I think we’ve got plenty to coordinate! I’m very pleased to report that volunteer power will not be a challenge – we have had a great response, even for clean-up duty!

All of the staff here at RSVP feel that the rewards from this event will be many – fun and information for kids of all ages; food for area food banks; mittens to be distributed to folks with cold hands; cell phones to be refurbished and distributed to elderly and others who are in need of a 911 phone; and donations to a very worthy cause. Wish us luck!

Ruth Saint Amand is the Director at HealthReach RSVP and is a guest blogger. To learn more about this and other Martin Luther King Day of service projects visit us at VolunteerMaine.org.

By Amy Klodzinski

Planning for the Portland West “Free Book Fair Day” is going very smoothly. From the initial inception of the idea, until the present, the planning has been an enjoyable process. Portland West is planning to host a free book fair benefiting the English language leaning and low-income members of our community. During the book fair, we are going to be displaying books that the Portland West Learning Center Afterschool Program Students created. The students will also be encouraged to attend the event and present their books and other projects to the participants at the fair.

There are many components to creating an event like this and we seem to be keeping up with all of our tasks with ease. We’ve collaborated with the Parent’s Association at Waynflete School to help us in the collection of books. We have created flyers to hand out to our students in the afterschool and English Language programs, the clients in the rest of our programs at Portland West, Reiche and King Middle Schools, other community organizations, and to post in multiple neighborhoods in Portland.

The most rewarding aspect of this project so far has been working with the students in the Learning Center in creating the ‘Community Books.” The students are creating two books. For the first book, the students are working in groups to create accordion books about what needs to be in our community. The second book students are making are individual books centered around themselves and how they fit into their community. The discussions and the creativity of the book making process is where the students are making the most connections.

The next steps are planning for the day of the event. We are very excited and hopeful that we will give away many books to the people who need them.

Amy Klodzinski is a Community Learning Center Teacher at Portland West and a guest blogger. To find out more about this project and other projects visit VolunteerMaine.org .