Every year we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and more recently this holiday has become a "day of service"--an opportunity to do something meaningful for your community.
Celebrating Dr. King’s birthday with Books & Media
If you’d like to learn more about Dr. King through books, you can find them using these searches to find specific materials that are available to put on hold right now:
- Picture books
- Biographies & non-fiction for kids
- Biographies & non-fiction for teens
- Biographies & non-fiction for adults
For media, you can try this search.
You can request any of these titles and pick up during Sidewalk Service hours.
Celebrating Dr. King’s birthday with local organizations
Join Youth Community Service (YCS), the City of Palo Alto and community partners (in a celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, January 18th, 11am-1pm on Zoom. Click here to register!
The King Institute at Stanford is hosting a Documentary Film Festival: Where Do We Go From Here? for high school students and older. Make sure to register in order to receive the passwords to view the films.
Honoring MLK During the Pandemic
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day has become recognized as a ‘day of service’ since it was recognized as a holiday – with the idea of making it ‘a day on, not a day off.’ Of course, that’s a little harder to do during the pandemic. For general ideas on how to serve on this day, you might look at these national resources:
For some local ideas, you might look at:
- City of Palo Alto: Volunteer and Donation Opportunities
- City of Palo Alto: Magical Bridge Foundation
- Donate through Project Pledge to support Palo Alto residents in need with one-time utilities bill assistance
- Help a local faith-based community provide shelter for the homeless with Hotel de Zink
- Support military and first responders with letters and care packages with Operation Gratitude
- TeensVolunteer.org – provides opportunities in California and virtually
Make sure that however you honor MLK this year, that you take care of yourself and your family while respecting all the health guidelines.
-Kathy Swartz, Youth Services Librarian | Follow @teal_librarian on Bibliocommons
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