MLK Day of Service

Taking place each January, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service — a “day on, not a day off.” The day celebrates the life and legacy of the Civil Rights leader and exists to move the nation closer to Dr. King’s vision of a “Beloved Community” by encouraging all Americans to take the time to volunteer and invest in their community.

This year we will observe the Day of Service on Saturday, January 14, 2023 to support local Gainesville celebrations on the federal holiday. This in one event in a larger campus-wide celebration honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his commitment to social justice through educational programs and service initiatives that are designed to empower you to use your strengths, passions, and talents to better the lives of others and impact your community. For the full list of MLK events, visit the MLK Celebration Homepage.

Registration open for MLK Day of Service: Saturday, January 14, 2023

Join fellow UF student volunteers and our partnering community members for a day of reflection and service in the local Gainesville community. Learn about service opportunities in Gainesville, meet new people, build awareness of diverse social issues and communities, and experience the community first-hand.

Service Sites

Grow Hub

Grow Hub is a beautiful and safe place where adults of all abilities can find meaningful work. Grow Hub’s collaborative community programs and partnerships provide cultivating and empowering education, training, and job opportunities for disabled adults to improve sustainable living. Volunteers will create a food and herbs garden for workers with disabilities to have access to free fresh produce as well as beautification projects on site.

Keep Alachua County Beautiful

Operation Catnip

Operation Catnip’s life-saving work improves the lives of cats and the communities in which they live by spaying, neutering, and vaccinating free-roaming cats, preventing the births of kittens, mentoring other programs around the country, and training veterinarians to save America’s community cats. We have an outdoor enclosure (“catio”) for our working cats seeking adoption into nontraditional homes (barns, warehouses, etc.). This catio needs to be deep cleaned! Afterward, we will have volunteers clean our cat transport van and humane traps.

The Repurpose Project

The Repurpose Project is a non-profit community-based effort to divert valuable resources from the landfill, redirect these items to the public for art and education, inspire creativity, and help us all rethink what we throw away. Our first initiative, started in January of 2012, was a reuse store, but our organization has grown tremendously to include other programs and initiatives, all aimed at bringing awareness to the importance of respecting and reusing the resources we take from the earth.

UF Native Plant Nursery

UF Natural Area Teaching Lab

The Natural Area Teaching Lab (NATL) is a 60-acre conservation area located on the southwestern corner of the University of Florida Gainesville campus. The mission of NATL is to help teach students and the public about ecology, biodiversity, and conservation. Volunteers will assist the NATL Operations Team in various tasks to help maintain the area. Examples of such tasks include: helping remove invasive plants, pulling/trimming vines growing over fences and trails, helping remove trash from the area, and helping us prepare sites for future restoration projects (e.g., planting native plants).”

US Hunger

Questions

Want to know more about the MLK Day of Service? Connect with our staff at
bcls@ufsa.ufl.edu