MLK Day Goes Virtual as Nonprofits Try to Keep Message of Service Alive

On a typical, pre-pandemic Martin Luther King Jr. Day, L.A. Works would be coordinating with thousands of volunteers to revitalize a school or a community center in the Los Angeles area.

Instead, the nonprofit will host three virtual volunteer events focused on homelessness, food insecurity, and the intersection of race and criminal justice. Each of those events will conclude with an at-home project or advocacy action for volunteers to carry out. The group is also harnessing the power of the popular video game Minecraft as a civil-rights education tool.

“Things are different this year,” said Deborah Brutchey, executive director of L.A. Works, a nonprofit that recruits volunteers for other nonprofits through its website.

Nonprofits have long branded Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a day of service to give back to the community or a time to reflect and learn about America’s tragic history of systemic racism. Now amid a pandemic that has underscored racial and ethnic disparities in American life while also making it hard to gather for traditional volunteer service events, nonprofits are changing their approach to the holiday by going virtual, volunteering remotely, and trying novel ways to reach new audiences.

The most unusual L.A. Works event for the holiday is its “Minecraft March on Washington.” Minecraft is a video game with trademark blocky graphics that allows gamers to create detailed virtual landscapes or buildings. L.A. Works has been working with more than 30 volunteer gamers for several months to create a Minecraft version of the National Mall’s Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and Reflecting Pool areas in Washington, D.C., complete with civil-rights leaders of the past and present. On MLK Day, players will be able to interact with those characters, tour virtual exhibits, and help build their own monuments to reflect their experiences.

“The idea came from one of my staff members who is a gamer,” said Brutchey. “It was a lot of work. We needed to do the research on all the characters — not just the building but all of the content, too.”

Activities in King’s Hometown

For past MLK Days, the Atlanta History Center, in King’s hometown, has organized large, in-person educational gatherings at its 33-acre main campus. Last year’s activities drew 4,000 attendees, who toured exhibits, listened to speakers, and participated in activities such as poetry writing and protest button-making. The event required a large volunteer corps to pull off.

This year the museum, which has extensive collections related to the mid-20th-century civil-rights movement era, will shift all of its MLK Day programs — produced entirely in-house without volunteers — online. The featured event is an author talk with father-son historians Stephen and Paul Kendrick, who will discuss their book Nine Days, which examines the effects of the arrest and imprisonment of Martin Luther King Jr. on the 1960 presidential election. The group is also preparing a virtual civil-rights education tool kit to distribute to families. It includes videos, songbooks, and interactive games for young adults.

“Last year we saw a huge, incredible movement with youth activism,” said Shatavia Elder, director of education for the Atlanta History Center. “We try to leverage that enthusiasm with an education to show them some of the historical figures. Dr. King was 27 when he really began to boycott discriminatory practices. John Lewis was 25 when he led people over the Edmund Pettus Bridge.”

“We talk about these young activists and then relate that back to the students so they can see themselves in the picture,” said Elder. “It gives them the opportunity to see themselves in the work and to use that perspective to be able to create some sort of change for the world now.”

Similarly, the United Way of Greater Atlanta was unaccustomed to virtual events before the pandemic. In the months since March, though, the group has embraced virtual events wholeheartedly. This year, it is hosting a Child Well-Being Hackathon in which attendees will gather virtually to brainstorm solutions to problems that are vexing some of its charity partners, such as marketing needs, website analytics, and recruiting. The group is planning no in-person events that day.

For Kisha Stanley, senior director of volunteerism at United Way of Greater Atlanta, it’s a big change from previous years.

“We’ve always loved to do those really big days where we mobilize hundreds of volunteers,” said Stanley. “We are not doing in-person at all. Our numbers surged as a city, and it’s responsible for us to not promote those at all.”

Mentoring and Social Media

In years past, Hands On Atlanta produced a large day of service, connecting businesses with volunteer work forces with local nonprofits that needed virtual work. Last year’s event included more than 30 projects seeking volunteers spread across the entire week of the holiday. It has also recently begun to partner with the Martin Luther King Center and Morehouse College to promote volunteer opportunities.

This year, the group for the first time will offer virtual and remote volunteer opportunities for the day. One event seeks volunteers to help compose social-media posts for a local nonprofit. Another seeks virtual mentors for 2nd and 3rd grade refugees at a suburban Atlanta school.

Open Hand Atlanta

And while the pandemic has made many people more cautious about volunteering, Hands On Atlanta is also promoting some in-person volunteer opportunities for the holiday, to distribute food, sort clothing and books donated to a local church, and plant trees in a park. In all, more than 100 volunteer MLK Day projects are promoted using the Hands On Atlanta’s website.

Tim Adkins, director of marketing and communications at Hands On Atlanta, said he is expecting turnout to increase compared with last year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day events. That’s partially because attendance at these events no longer requires a physical presence. Hands On Atlanta has seen tremendous success growing attendance at its “Sunday Supper” dinner talk series. Before the pandemic, the event typically attracted 200 people for food and a discussion of a pressing topic with featured speakers. Since moving virtual, the Sunday Supper has seen the audiences double.

“Being able to go virtual eliminates the barrier of having four walls,” said Adkins. “Where before I could only fit 100 people in a room, I can put 250 people on a Zoom call, and it’s just expanding the reach.”