How many people can you organize in one week?

In lieu of the traditional Friday Roundup, we’re asking for your social networking help. Hands On Charlotte needs you to help publicize our upcoming MLK Service Forum. So here's the question: How many people can you organize in one week? You can ReTweet us. You can link to our blog. You can tell your friends to “Like” our FanPage on Facebook on Facebook.

If our MLK Service Forum is going to be a success, it will be because of a grassroots effort. That means we need you to mobilize your inner circle! There are a few ways to participate in the MLK Service Forum on January 17 at the Grady Cole Center:

• Donation drop off: Folks don’t even have to get out of their cars! From 8 a.m. until 10 a.m., Hands On Charlotte will be accepting donations in the loop around Grady Cole Center. Requested items include: clothing for all ages; hygiene items for all ages; school supplies; office supplies; packaged snack items for school-aged children; first-aid supplies; board games; cleaning supplies; electronic items (including computers, monitors, speakers, microphones and other education-related electronics.) Click here to learn more.
  
  
• Volunteer recruitment fair: From 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., Hands On Charlotte will bring together more than 20 nonprofit organizations from around the city to recruit and train volunteers for various projects. Volunteer training sessions start at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. For a listing of all agencies involved in the event, please visit our website.
  
  
• Free health screenings and children’s volunteer activities: Carolinas HealthCare will be providing free health screenings between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., and during that time, Hands On Charlotte will be providing supervised children’s activities aimed at teaching kids about community service.

Remember, there is no cost to attend the MLK Service Forum. Call 704.333.7471 or visit www.handsoncharlotte.org for more information. Keep following this blog, our Twitter feed and our Facebook FanPage for more information.

Hands On Charlotte is adding a new element to our MLK Week of Service – a Community Cinema.

We all know the power of films. Films have the ability to call up emotions in one’s self that we did not even know we had (which is my excuse for crying during ‘Titanic’). Films allow us to see how we are related to other people and ideas.

At our Community Cinema event, a group of individuals from the community will join together to watch one of three films. After each screening, we will hold a brief discussion on how the films relate to our lives and the broader Charlotte community.

Join us Sunday, January 16 at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte for a double screening from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. We’ll start with A Village Called Versailles and end with Deep Down.

Click here to sign up.


Bryan Schauerte

MLK Week of Service starts January 14

We know it can be tough to get jazzed about volunteering immediately after the holidays. There are bills to pay. Cold weather to deal with. And I’m certain that some people out there have a cold or the flu (if anyone wants to start a support group, let me know).

Well, here comes a spark to ignite your community-service spirit in 2011. From January 14 until January 21, Hands On Charlotte will present its MLK Week of Service.

During the MLK Week of Service, we will offer more than 60 projects at nonprofit organizations around the city. Visit the website to learn about all the projects.

Our MLK Week of Service is our beginning to 2011, our 20th-anniversary year. We need your help to make 2011 our best year yet, and that effort starts with our MLK Week of Service.

2011 begins January 17

Over the holiday season, we talked a lot about service. Of course, during that season, it’s an easy charge to talk about giving back and community engagement.

Here’s the challenge we all face on January 1: How do we sustain the spirit of the holiday season well into the New Year?

Here’s the answer in 30 words: Hands On Charlotte needs to empower our volunteers with new, innovative programming, and we need our volunteers to push themselves to continue serving their community, despite winter’s darkness and monotony.

The first major component of our 2011 programming is on January 17 at the Grady Cole Center, where we will host the first annual MLK Service Forum. The Forum will bring together some 20 nonprofit organizations from around the city to honor the life and ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We will have donation drop-offs, a volunteer-recruitment fair, free health screenings and children’s activities.

At our MLK Service Forum, you will have the opportunity to learn more about the needs of Charlotte’s nonprofits, and with that information, you’ll be able to map out how you want to serve your community in 2011.

We urge you to attend our MLK Service Forum. There is no cost to attend. Click here to learn more.

Starting an exciting, transformative year

Let’s kick off the New Year with a thank you. Thank you to everyone who donated to our holiday campaign in November and December. With your help, we raised $15,000 to support our programming. We said we needed your help to bring back all the dots, and as you can tell, the dots are all there.

In fact, you can see there are a few extra dots in the logo. As we begin 2011, we invite you to join in our 20th-anniversary celebration. We first started serving the Charlotte community in 1991, and 20 years later, we are looking forward to serving you 20 more!

We are going to celebrate our 20th anniversary with events all year long. The first of those events is January 17, when we will host our MLK Service Forum at Grady Cole Center from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. At the MLK Service Forum, we will honor the life and ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with donation-drop offs, a volunteer-recruitment fair and on-site service projects. The MLK Service Forum is part of our MLK Week of Service, which starts January 15 and will feature more than 60 service projects across the city.

Keep reading our blog and following our Twitter feed (@HandsOnCLT) for more updates on the MLK Service Forum and the MLK Week of Service. For all you Twitter users out there, the hashtag for the Service Forum is #mlkserviceforum.