News Releases

LSA Members Organize National Day of Service Opportunities

January 9, 2009 (Baltimore, MD) - On January 19, Americans will have more than 60 opportunities to serve in their communities with Lutheran health and human service organizations that are part of Lutheran Services in America (LSA). The volunteer opportunities were selected in response to the National Day of Service on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, January 19, 2009 hosted by the Obama-Biden Inaugural Committee.

The Obama-Biden Inaugural Committee asked national service organizations, including LSA, for a commitment of 20 volunteer opportunities. Field organizers throughout the country will promote the volunteer events. The e-mail to the organizations, signed by the Inaugural Committee members, said, “While government has an important role to play in helping rekindle our economy and addressing the problems of a distressed nation, President-elect Obama believes each of us, as Americans, have a responsibility to do what we can for our communities and fellow citizens.”

LSA members from North Carolina to Washington State and from New England to Louisiana are participating in the January 19 event.

In Albemarle, North Carolina, residents and staff at Lutheran Home - Albemarle will open, staff, and provide the meal at the local soup kitchen, which was scheduled to be closed for the holiday. Mary Ann Johnson at Lutheran Services for the Aging says, “The residents feel they are fortunate to have a wonderful home at Lutheran Home and want to do for others. They would love to have additional volunteers to help them.”

In Council Bluffs, Iowa, Bethany Lutheran Home and Bethany Heights invite neighbors to “Change Their Day” by giving their time to visit with residents, whether that is reading or sharing stories and conversation, participating in games and activities or baking Presidential Cookies.

In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, volunteers will make fleece blankets that will be given to refugees when they arrive in South Dakota. The project is called “Making a Warm Welcome."

A full list of volunteer opportunities are available on the website, www.usaservice.org.

Lutheran Services in America creates opportunities with people in thousands of communities throughout the United States and the Caribbean as an alliance of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, and their nearly 300 health and human service organizations. Working neighbor to neighbor through services in health care, aging and disability supports, community development, housing, and child and family strengthening, these organizations together touch the lives of more than six million people or one in 50 Americans each year.

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