The 2nd Annual MLK Day of Service on the Richmond Greenway is only 8 days away. This year, coming together as a community to honor Dr. King’s legacy and vision, and to work together to improve our own community seems even more appropriate than ever.

Here are the details:

When: 9:00 to 1:00

Where: 6th Street and the Richmond Greenway (between Chanslor and Ohio) right next to Lincoln Elementary School. Click here for map.

Why: To honor the legacy of Dr. King by coming together and working to improve our community.

What: There will be 8-10 work teams creating planting beds, planting shrubs, trees, and berry bushes, weeding, moving wood chips and compost, picking up garbage, painting garden signs,  etc. Although we have lots of work lined up, there is a good chance we will get hundreds of volunteers, so expect a day that is equal parts service and social.

What Else: Speeches by East Bay Regional Park Board Member Whitney Dotson and others, DJ Goodbeer, West County Grown Organic Soups, the first 300 volunteers will get a free t-shirt and all participants can pot-up and take home a strawberry.

How About For the Kids? Face-painting, worms, seed balls, reading corner and Junior Ranger Patches

What Can You Bring? Friends, family, and neighbors, work gloves and a trowel if you have them. (We’ll have a bunch, but there could be hundreds of volunteers).

RSVP:  Please email mlk@urbantilth.org if you plan to attend with your name, city, organization (if any) and phone number.

What About Groups? We are reserving many spots for Richmond residents and organizations, so please email park@urbantilth.org or call Park Guthrie at (510) 691-5051 if you have a large group you wish to bring.

Early Risers: We could still use more help setting up and directing traffic. If you are willing to show up at 7:00, please email park@urbantilth.org.

Click here for an 2009 MLK Flyer in Word Document-Spanish and English

The MLK Day of Service on the Richmond Greenway is just one of hundreds of service events nationally on MLK Day. This Richmond event is organized by Friends of the Richmond Greenway, Opportunity West/SAGE, and Urban Tilth and supported by Service for Peace, the Watershed Project, C.U.R.M.E. (Communities United Restoring Mother Earth), the 5% Local Coalition, CYCLE, the Rosie the Riveter National Park, the City of Richmond, Parks and Landscaping Division, Verde Partnership Garden and others. We are looking for other schools, churches, and community organizations and individuals to get involved. We are planning for 300 volunteers at 8 different sites along the Richmond Greenway.

The next planning session will take place during the first 40 minutes of the Friends of the Richmond Greenway meeting on November 19th at 5:30 at the Nevin Center.

Please help spread the word.

Thank you,
Cheryl Maier, Doria Robinson, and Park Guthrie

Come do some fall garden clean-up and planting at the Peace Garden at 1st and Nevin Street in Richmond from 9:30 to 12:30! We’ll be inviting Peace Garden neighbors to get involved with 5% Local, so bring a dish featuring west County food to share. Doria will run the regularly scheduled Berryland workday at the same time, so you could stop by both places…but if you’re only going to make one, come to the Peace Garden as we’d like to have a strong showing there.

You are cordially invited to join the 2nd planning meeting for the 2009 MLK Day of Service on the Richmond Greenway which will be on Monday, January 19th, 2009.

The planning meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 15th from 5:30 to 7:00 at the Nevin Community Center on 6th Street and Nevin, just down from Kaiser in the Iron Triangle.

Last year more than 150 volunteers turned out (in the rain, even) to honor the spirit and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by working together to tangibly improve our community. Volunteers on the Richmond Greenway:
—–built, filled, and planted raised garden beds at Lincoln School Farm and Berryland,
—planted California native plants and fruit trees,
—picked up garbage along the Greenway
—listened to speeches and performances inspired by Dr. King’s message
—shared a delicious lunch made from almost entirely West County produce
—danced to the tunes of DJ Goodbeer

This year we hope to bring even more folks out to the Greenway, especially Greenway neighbors. Please join us next Wednesday to start planning this important event.

We are searching for individual volunteers and organizations to lead or serve on the following committees. . .

(1) Community Outreach and Registration Committee—distributes flyers, contacts community organizations to get them involved, goes door-to-door to invite Greenway neighbors, etc. Also, organizes registration desk on day of event.
(2) Publicity and Design Committee—creates flyers, map, and program
(3) Projects and work crew leaders Committee—organizes various volunteer work crews and trains work crew leaders
(4) Work team hosts/Team Building Committee—plans team-building/socializing activity for work teams.
(5) Food Committee—solicits donations of West County ag products; organizes cooking and serving of lunch
(6) MLK Program, Entertainment and Tabling Committee—invites speakers, performers and DJ. Also invites organizations to table at the event.

Please send an email to park(at) urbantilth (dot) org or call at (510) 691-5051 if you plan to attend or have questions or suggestions.

We look forward to working with you to create a wonderful 2009 MLK Day of Service in Richmond.

Sincerely,

Doria Robinson, Park Guthrie, and Cheryl Maier

Flyer for Jr. Ranger Day at Berryland 5.10.08