Make It a “Day On” for MLK Jr. Day
This coming Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday which has been designated by Congress as a National Day of Service. You may have heard about making it “a day on, not a day off,” and if you’ve been waiting for the right moment, this is it! Read below to see ways to get involved and/or use the holiday as an opportunity to learn.
Here are organizations that are looking for support, some with specific dates and others just generally looking for volunteers:
- First Graduate supports kids from middle school through college who will become the first generation in their family to graduate from college. First Graduate identifies their biggest need at the moment:
- Presentations of Learning — You can be a panelist and give students constructive feedback on their 5 minute speeches. It's happening on Saturday, January 24 from 2:30-6:30pm at City Arts & Leadership Academy, 350 Seneca Street, San Francisco, CA 94112.
- Please sign up and/or tell your friends and networks to do it! This is one of the major highlights of our students' time at FG, where pushing themselves past their comfort levels really helps them grow.
- Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy has a variety of family-friendly, outdoor service opportunities over the long weekend including habitat restoration, trail maintenance, planting & weeding, and historic landscape care.
- City Hope is a place where some of our students volunteer on the weekends/evenings with their families and/or youth groups, and they are doing some wonderful work in the Tenderloin. They focus on building relationships and making sure that the people who walk in their doors–whether it's for free coffee and breakfast in the mornings, a trivia or movie night, or delivering groceries to underresourced families–are seen and recognized as the full humans they are, rather than disregarded and dehumanized as people on the street so often are. Here is a list of their volunteer opportunities.
- GLIDE is one of our middle school community partners who does amazing work in the city. The rush of volunteers slows down in January, and so now is a great time to step in with Glide. Here is Glide’s volunteer calendar which shows which shifts are available, how many more people they need, and if there are any age limitations.
If you’re interested in learning — a less direct but incredibly important component of service! — here are some special events happening over the long weekend:
- Monday, January 19: Glide is hosting a march starting at 9am to pay “homage to the historic Selma to Montgomery marches and the monumental Voting Rights Act of 1965.”
- Monday, January 19: The Museum of the African Diaspora will be hosting special events + free admission on Monday.
- Here is a list of events over the long weekend from the Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation that includes workshops, concerts and performances, and presentations about Martin Luther King Jr, civil rights, and service.
- Monday, January 19: 2026 MLK Music Festival | Yerba Buena
- Friday, January 16 through Monday, January 19: Black & Brown Comix Arts Festival (BCAF)
If you have any other ideas about ways to serve the community, whether it’s this coming MLK Jr. Day or at any other point, please drop Renata a line: service@liveoaksf.org.
Stay tuned next week for a rundown of Week of Service activities throughout Live Oak!
Live Oak學校歡迎並接納任何種族，膚色，國籍和民族血統，公民身份，性別認同，性別表達，性取向和信仰的學生，以享受Live Oak學校的所有權利，特權，計劃和活動。Live Oak學校不會因種族，膚色，國籍和民族血統，公民身份，性別認同，性別表達，性取向以及對其教育政策和計劃，招生政策，調整后的學費計劃以及體育和其他學校管理的計劃管理的信仰而歧視。