By Paul Thompson

Northeast News

January 16, 2017

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Though rainy weather kept them indoors, community members celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 16 with a day of service in the Historic Northeast as part of the 4th Annual Northeast MLK Day of Action.

The community service day began four years ago as a partnership between Indian Mound Neighborhood Association Vice President Manny Abarca and Sheffield Neighborhood Association President Mark Morales. Though the Northeast MLK Day of Action has typically focused on cleaning up area parks, the group of volunteers decided to bring the service day indoors for 2017 with the looming threat of bad weather.

“We were going to come to Sheffield Park to do work in our orchard and do some litter prevention and beautification projects, but because of the weather we came indoors,” said Morales.

Previous incarnations of the day of service have included clearing out the view at Indian Mound Park and conducting clean-up efforts at Budd Park. Due to the weather concerns, the group opted to spend the day taking down Christmas decorations at Our Lady of Peace (1029 Bennington) and cleaning up the Northeast church’s gym, which is just north in an adjacent facility.

Abarca said that the day of community action is all about getting off the couch and putting in the effort to better the community.

“This stuff is little in the grand scheme of things, but to the church, I’m imagining that it’s leaps and bounds,” said Abarca. “Some of the people aren’t even from our neighborhood; just to see that level of commitment is great, and it’s inspiring.”