Austin, TX– On January 15, young people from American YouthWorks’ (AYW) Environmental Corps, Casa Verde Builders (CVB) and staff will engage volunteers in community service to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Partnering with Keep Austin Beautiful (KAB) and the Montopolis Tributary Trail Association, corps members and community volunteers will remove invasive species, seed wildflowers and pick up trash on the Montopolis Greenbelt.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

8:30 am-9:00 am Volunteer sign in and breakfast

9:00 am-10:00 am “Reflecting on the Dream”

Huston-Tilloston University

Davage-Durden Union Building

900 Chicon Street.

10:00 am-3:00 pm Montopolis Greenbelt Clean up and Invasive Species Removal

Meet at the Montopolis Practice Fields

901 Vasquez St.

Volunteers can sign up at www.handsoncentraltexas.org.  Wear long pants, bring water and be prepared to get dirty.  If you have questions, call Rachel Matvy, 744-1904.  The service project will take place next door to Burdett Prairie Cemetery, a historic site that AYWs’ CVB program has already performed several service days to restore.  Currently, there are just a few, short trails in the Montopolis neighborhood.  The Montopolis Tributary Trail Network will be constructed in the Montopolis Greenbelt to increase connectivity to nearby bikeways and parks and provide more recreational space.  This service project is one of the first steps.  Please join us!

Jenny Rodriguez plants a tree at MLK Service Day

Americorps members, Service Learning Academy students, and staff participated in the MLK service day January 16^th beginning at Huston-Tillotson University; hosted by Hands on Central Texas. We listened to the main speaker, Dr. Richard Reddick, and other amazing speakers, ate free breakfast tacos, and saw a performance by Cipher, a group founded by Jeff Da’shade Johnson. Cipher is a street project for outreach to youth in our community. Also, we heard a speech from a 4^th grader named Lamar, a little boy with a big heart. I must say he was an amazing speaker; his speech was about Dr. King and how proud of us he would be for the work we were doing that day.  After the festivities, we went to a site and planted trees one by one. We also helped each other dig and break through compounded soil so we could plant the young saplings in their new homes in order to spread their roots through the foundation. In the midst of digging we learned an important lesson—team work. It was hot but we worked together in our efforts to help our community.

–Elais Laurila, Computer Corps member