Katie and friends served alongside nearly 10,000 volunteers assembling care packages for soldiers in Washington, DC at the D.C. Armory on Saturday, January 19, 2013 in honor of MLK Day of Service.
Dr. King once said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others? In that spirit, nearly 10,000 volunteers, including Vice President Biden and his family, US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, and some GSK employees from the DC office, assembled 100,000 care packages for US soldiers this past Saturday in honor of MLK Day of Service.
A DJ spun great music as thousands of volunteers danced, socialized, and went through lines writing personal thank you notes to soldiers and assembling care kits for US military personnel, disabled veterans and civilian first responders. As GSK's director of US community partnerships, I know first-hand that creating a venue that allows 10,000 people to give back in such a meaningful way is no easy feat. It takes tremendous partnerships among many civic-minded organizations. AmeriCorps, the Corporation for National and Community Service, Points of Light, Target, Serve DC, HandsOn Greater DC Cares, Volunteer Fairfax, the Community Blueprint, George Washington University and Operation Gratitude all came together and partnered on this event, and I tip my hat to them.
Across the nation, people are volunteering in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including 4,000 in Philadelphia where GSK is a proud sponsor of the Philadelphia MLK Day of Service. In Philly, there are more than 150 projects underway, including a book drive, a kids' carnival, a job fair, and a health and wellness fair.
On this special day, I encourage you to remember that you have the ability to make a powerful and positive difference in the life of someone else. As Dr. King said, "Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve." To learn more about MLK Day of Service, click here, and to learn more about GSK's community partnerships, click here.
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