A partly-sunny Martin Luther King, Jr. day attracted a steady stream of Long Beach residents to the Eighth District to help clean up the community, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his dream.
According to Heather Morrison, the communications deputy for Long Beach City Councilmember Al Austin, approximately two dozen people arrived to clean the streets and alleyways of the Virginia Village corridor in North Long Beach, from 9:00AM to noon today.
Other North Long Beach service projects included events at the field office of Long Beach City Councilmember Rex Richardson, which featured Images of America: Selma author and Long Beach resident Sharon Jackson speaking about the March on Selma and the Civil Rights Movement.
“It was great—a good number of participants,” said Morrison of the Virginia Village event, adding that Long Beach Unified School District Board Member Megan Kerr and Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA) Executive Director Blair Cohn were on hand to help haul the unwanted trash in the streets, along with Al Austin and other community members.
“It’s just been a great day to follow the parade,” she added.
The parking lot of the Mexican restaurant El Cortez in Virginia Village served as a meeting point for the volunteers. A tent full of extra gloves, food and drinks sad adjacent to an array of rakes, brooms and shovels. Everyone chipped in, with adults helping the younger volunteers out in carrying heavy items like televisions. The team filled an entire dumpster.
A fitting way to “Make MLK Day a ‘day on, not a day off!’” as Al Austin’s website states.
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