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At the busy intersection of 52nd Street and Parkside Avenue on Monday, Azor Baker joined about two dozen volunteers shoveling leaves and clearing invasive English ivy that had obscured the century-old stone wall that marks the entrance to this section of West Fairmount Park.
“Well, I’m out here volunteering for the humanity of Martin Luther King Day,” said Baker, who lives a couple blocks away in the West Parkside neighborhood. “It’s a special day for all of us…for us all to come together and to have a more clean city.”
The effort, organized by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, along with the Fairmount Park Conservancy, was just one of hundreds of volunteer events across the Philadelphia region as part of the nation’s oldest and largest effort in honor of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tens of thousands of volunteers cleared trash, packed hygiene kits for unhoused residents, rallied for peace and justice, and distributed food and clothing.
“Today’s a great day that we’re all coming out as one together,” said West Parkside resident Racquel Wiley. “There’s no ‘I’ in ‘we.’ And I want to do more things in my community.”
Both Wiley and Baker work for the Business Association of West Parkside’s Taking Care of Business program, which regularly cleans up the nearby commercial strip.
Fitler Square resident Andre Martinez said he joined the effort to give back to a park he uses often. He said when he thinks of King, he is inspired to stand up for others.
“People who don’t have the rights that they should and treating your neighbor the way you’d like to be treated, fighting against the system that diminishes people.”
Organizers say the MLK Day of Service aims to encourage people to volunteer year-round.
Torjia Karimu, a landscape manager with Fairmount Park Conservancy, works with a group of volunteers removing invasive English ivy during a Martin Luther King Day event in West Fairmount Park. (Emma Lee/WHYY)