2010 MLK Jr. Day of Service

I can't believe a week has gone by. My name is Rob and on last Monday I volunteered on my first LA Works project. I have to start by commenting on how organized and well put together this event was. Groups were assigned to specific tasks, projects for young people were designed to teach them of Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to serving people and everything got done in the time alloted. Not even the rain could damper the spirit of the hundreds of people who showed up to help give Van Nuys Middle School a bit of a facelift.

Work had been a bit slow and I was spending too much time having one sided conversations with politicians on the TV, so I started looking for opportunities to use my skills to help others. I'm no stranger to service work but I haven't had a fire lit under me like this for quite a while. I started calling around to my friends tossing out ideas and planning my take over of the nonprofit world. I was going to have the idea that revolutionized service work. K. Where do I start. I'm not going to bore you with all the kookie ideas that I came up with and jump to the last. I was going to create a place online that brought attention to small non profits who needed help finding volunteers and put up a calendar of all kinds of events across Los Angeles taking place all year long so a busy person could check in when they have a day off and find a group that could use their help on that day! Yes! So, I checked in with the almighty google and found once again I'm not that original. I found LA Works. Not only had they stolen my idea, they did it in 1991 when I was in my senior year of high school in Boston. All lame jokes aside, I was a bit deflated. I had a sincere desire to serve and my ideas were running out.

It was Christmas and I was visiting the in-laws when I had a realization. My ego was getting in the way of me serving others. Why not help the organization in existence that's doing what I thought was such a good idea. I shot an email to LA Works asking if they could use a photographer at an upcoming event and the rest is history. Now you're thinking 'Where are the photographs?' As usual, when I need to get something done my life gets busy. Don't worry though. I'm almost done editing some stories and photos together and hope to have them up tomorrow, so stay tuned!