National Days of Service are a series of nationally-recognized and celebrated one-day service events that bring people together in their local communities, schools and neighborhoods to highlight particular needs, find new solutions, and renew our sense of commitment to community service. HandsOn was pleased to begin offering Days of Service opportunities beginning with Martin Luther King Day in January 2010.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service

In 2010, HandsOn Northwest North Carolina, in partnership with Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University and Salem College, planed our first-ever Read-In event to promote Dr. King’s messages of service and literacy in conjunction and co-located with one of the largest commemorative events held in our city every year: the 30th Annual Noon Hour Commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday. The 2010 MLK Day of Service was a “day on, not a day off” for many community members in Winston-Salem, NC.  About 300 volunteers served at the 2010 MLK Day Read-In Event.  The collaboration was the first of its kind in Winston-Salem and allowed parents to attend the Noon Hour Commemoration while their children attended the Read-In event.  The children learned about Dr. King, performed service such as writing letters to troops, and they also received new and used donated books.  Approximately 500 books were distributed to the 100 children who participated in the event. Since then, we've held the event on the Wake Forest University campus, and the event has grown each year. For pictures, check out our photo album on Picasa. If you would like to partner with us for the 2013 MLK Day of Service, please contact Goldie Irving.

September 11th Day of Service and Remembrance

Also in 2010, as part of our first-ever 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance, HandsOn NWNC organized a community-wide donation drive for the troops serving in Iraq and Afganistan. Each year since then, we've developed projects with a variety of our partners around the community. The projects have involved hundred of volunteers through the years, and usually span the week that is inclusive of September 11th. If you're interested in hosting a project or volunteering for the 2013 9/11 Day of Service, please contact us.                      

In the summer of 2010, HandsOn NWNC, together with multiple community partners, began the creation of a Neighboring volunteer collaborative, a volunteer-driven program to strengthen youth and families in the Waughtown neighborhood, anchored by our relationship with Forest Park Elementary. Neighboring is the quitenessential model for "doing with, rather than doing for" a community, engaging residents and families who live in marginalized and low-income communities as volunteers and leaders in volunteer-directed community activities, program planning and execution, advocacy and leadership development. The collaborative seeks to model innovative volunteer programs to promote more inclusive engagement of volunteers from this community, which is traditioanlly under-engaged in civic life. The collaborative also seeks faith-based and neighborhood organizations as partners while promoting volunteering as a means for community residents to connect to economic recovery opportunities, needed services and support, and caring and nurturing social networks that promote community change.

At Forest Park Elementary , the collaborative seeks to engage students and their families by connecting them to nearby faith-based groups, businesses and other nonprofit and neighborhood resources in an effort to identify and address their community’s challenges effectively through the development of resident, student, and other volunteer leadership. Our focus is to increase youth development and civic engagement within both the school and the surrounding neighborhood, while also increasing volunteer leadership within local faith and business partners. Residents and students identify challenges they want to change in their community and we assist them to reach their goals through leadership development and community service projects. Students and their families are leaders in every aspect of project planning and execution. If you are a citizen or organization that is currently active in either the school or the surrounding Waughtown neighborhood and is interested in joining the collaborative, please email Goldie Irving.  We also welcome interest from volunteers outside of the neighborhood, including bilingual individuals, skills-based volunteers who have experience in leadership development, grant writing, project planning, or evaluation, as well as those willing to serve and mentors and tutors.

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