Flossmoor Expands Martin Luther King Day Event into Massive Day of Service

A day celebrating the work of Dr. Martin Luther King is not a day off! This was the thinking that inspired the Village of Flossmoor, Illinois to partner with more than a dozen Chicagoland organizations and governments to develop a sprawling volunteer-driven event in honor of the National Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

The Village of Flossmoor joined the MLK National Day of Service in 2015, hosting a community service project at village hall, and recruiting volunteers for the first MLK Day project at a local PADS shelter. The 2017 event represents an incredible expansion of the effort, extending aid to multiple projects both inside and outside of Flossmoor, including Homewood, Chicago Heights, Mokena and even Chicago.

Flossmoor has helped organize teams of volunteers who will converge on several locations throughout the South Suburbs and assist with completing service projects.

Volunteers will start the day at Flossmoor Community Church for an event serving homeless men and wrap up with an event making mats for the homeless at Village Hall. The projects also include collecting feminine hygiene products to be donated to a Chicago facility that supports homeless LGBTQ+ teenagers and young adults; providing homeless men with hot meals, haircuts, clothing, medical and social services; collecting books for incarcerated youth in Illinois; providing breakfast to children and more.

The Day of Service is already exploding with volunteers and service projects have already reached their volunteer capacity. Flossmoor Mayor Paul Braun praised the community for its commitment. "Flossmoor is home to some of the most involved, caring, and charitable folks in the Chicago suburbs,” Braun said. “The year's Martin Luther King day of service celebration is bigger than ever thanks to our wonderful residents. Dr. King would be proud of Flossmoor's efforts to help those in need."

Donations for several organizations can also be dropped off at Flossmoor Village Hall in the days leading up to the event. This includes non-perishable food items for the Respond Now food pantry, men’s clothing donations for PADS and more. The organizations will then pick up the donations on MLK Day as part of a grand celebration of Dr. King and the work being done in his honor.

Below is a list of places to volunteer.Sign up on Flossmoor website.

If you would like to volunteer to help with an MLK Day service project or conduct a donation drive, please contact the participating organizations directly. Below we have listed all of our current participating organizations as well as the names and locations of their service projects. More projects will be added so check back for updates. To get signed up for your service project of choice, please follow the instructions, then fill out the Volunteer Application to let us know what project you've joined.

MLK DAY OF SERVICE PROJECTS AND DONATION DRIVES

Organization: Homewood Public Library

Project Description: Collecting books for incarcerated youth in Illinois. A list of requested books is available at Homewood Library. Tuesday, January 3 Homewood Public Library will be collecting books in the weeks leading up to the day of service. On January 16, HPL invites members of the community to help sort and pack books in the Multi-purpose room.

Location: Homewood Library, 17917 Dixie Hwy

Time: 6 to 8pm

Volunteers needed: 7 Book Donations needed - view list at http://www.homewoodlibrary.org

To sign up or for more information, contact Ashley Sander at ashleys@homewoodlibrary.net.

Organization: Forest Preserves of Cook County

Project description: Join us for a day of stewardship. Try your hand at restoration by helping remove invasive plants while learning about efforts being made to maintain healthy habitats. Warm up with a hot drink and a brush pile burn while also enjoying some winter family-fun activities.

Location: Dan Ryan Woods Pavilion (Groves 6-9), 87th & Western, Chicago

Time: Noon – 3 pm

Volunteers needed: 60

Click here to sign up.

Organization: Lighthouse LGBTQ+

Project description: (Donation drive) Lighthouse will be collecting feminine hygiene products to be donated to a facility in Chicago that supports homeless LGBTQ+ teenagers and young adults.

Location: Flossmoor Village Hall

Time: 2 to 4 pm

Donations needed: feminine hygiene products

Contact Stephanie Wright for more information at Stephaniewright2159@gmail.com.

Organization: JourneyCare (formerly Horizon Hospice & Palliative Care)

Project description: "WARM OUR PATIENTS' HEARTS AND TOES!" We invite you to stop by the new Mokena office to make a Valentine card for our patients, to drop off new adult socks, or to drop off individually wrapped candy that will be delivered to our patients in February. All card-making craft supplies will be provided.

Location: JourneyCare Office - 9550 Bormet Drive, High Point Two Building, Suite 104 Mokena

Time: 12 to 4pm

Volunteers needed: varying up to 25 at one time

Donations needed: NEW adult socks for men or women, individually wrapped candy to tuck inside homemade Valentine cards

To sign up or for more information, contact Sandra Schramm at sschramm@horizonhospice.org

Organization: Overflow Ministry

Project description: Helping in the Clothing Pantry. Sort through donated clothes. Help to launder some of the clothing and hang and organize in the clothing pantry.

Location: 19320 S. Kedzie Avenue, Homewood

Time: 10 am

Volunteers needed: 4

Donations needed: $5 or $10 Mcdonalds or Walgreens gift cards for the homeless

To sign up or for more information, contact John Harvey at jharvey6@msn.com

Organization: PADS MLK Day Celebration at Flossmoor Community Church

Project description: This is a 12 hour day for the men of PADS. We have: hot meals, free haircuts, free clothing store & boot distributions, speakers, entertainment, a movie, games, medical & social services, etc

Location: Flossmoor Community Church - Travers Lane Doors

Time: Shifts available 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Volunteers needed: 75+

Donations needed: Men’s Clothing – all items except socks welcome. High demand items include jeans, coats, duffle bags, underwear, and belts.

Donation accepted January 3rd – 13th at Flossmoor Village Hall (use parking lot entrance).

Click here to sign up. For for more information, contact Margaret Epperson at zargaretepps@gmail.com.

Organization: Respond Now

Project description: Painting portions of the office space.

Location: Respond Now Office - 1439 Emerald, Chicago Heights

Time: 10 am

Volunteers needed: 20

Donations needed: Non-perishable food and hygiene products - drop off at Flossmoor Village Hall, Flossmoor Library, or Homewood Village Hall through January 16th.

To sign up or for more information, contact Carl Wolf at cwolf@respondnow.org

Organization: Flossmoor Baseball & Softball

Donation Drive: Flossmoor Firebird Travel teams are sponsoring a Sock Drive through the month of January. Five bins are placed throughout our community. Players are checking bins, will sort socks and deliver to local shelters.

Location: Bins placed at Flossmoor Library, Bakewell, The Cottage on Dixie, HF Racquet Club and St. Paul's Church in Chicago Heights

For more information, visit flossmoorbbsb.org or contact Katie Sullivan at katie.sullivan@comcast.net

Flossmoor Cares

The Flossmoor Community Relations Commission invites you to join your neighbors for a celebration of service. Learn about community services provided by the Police and Fire Departments. Participate in a Green Committee mat making project using recycled materials. This will be the final donation pick up site for the Respond Now food drive and all other donation drives.

Location: Flossmoor Village Hall

Time: 2pm – 4pm

Questions can be directed to Laura Brennan-Levy at the Village of Flossmoor, (708)798-2300 or lbrennan-levy@flossmoor.org. We look forward to celebrating with you on MLK Day.