Governor Corbett Helps to Launch MLK Day of Service in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG, Pa., Jan. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Tom Corbett today helped to launch the Central Pennsylvania MLK Day of Service, a community service effort involving hundreds of students from around the capital region as part of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

"Dr. King's whole life was spent in service to his fellow citizens," Corbett said to students assembled at the Camp Curtain School. "This is the day we become agents of change… by helping others and keeping faith with Dr. King's sacrifice."

Corbett applauded the students for dedicating what would ordinarily be a day off from school to help strengthen their communities. He urged them to continue finding new ways to serve in the future.

The Central Pennsylvania MLK Day of Service was established in 2009 to coordinate and assist service projects in the five-county region that had been underway for nearly a decade and to create new service projects to serve the local community.

More than 1,100 volunteers participated in last year's Central PA MLK Day of Service, and that number is expected to grow this year.

This morning's kick-off event included students from the Lurgan Junior High School in Northern Ireland, who are visiting the region as part of a first-ever international exchange in furtherance of the MLK Day of Service.

Created by an act of Congress, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was signed into law by President Reagan in 1983 to honor the slain civil rights leader. The holiday was first observed at the national level in 1986.

In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday as a national day of service. It is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service.

Media contact: Gary Miller, 717-783-1116

SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor