Martin Luther King Jr Day work party a success!
if we rightly consider,
every green tree is far more glorious
than if it were made of gold and silver.
–Martin Luther King, Jr
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day, Nature Consortium held two volunteer work parties. Martin Luther King Jr valued service as an essential part of activism–his late wife, Coretta Scott King, quotes him as saying, “Life’s most persistent and nagging question is ‘What are you doing for others?'” In that spirit, we came together to provide community members with the opportunity to give back to the natural environment that sustains Seattle.
All in all, we had two great work parties. We had a wide range of volunteers, from children to adults, from regulars to newbies. On Saturday, we had students from Seattle Pacific University’s service organization, Latriea. We had musicians on both days, including Brian Kent on saxophone, Mark Smason on trumpet, and Ben Yarges on shakuhachi (pictured above). The weather held out for us (no rain!) and we got a lot of work done. In total, over both days, we had nearly 80 volunteers, and accomplished 33,400 square feet of maintenance, mostly Himalayan blackberry, Scotch broom, and thistle. Volunteers who came on Monday got an extra special treat–pizza donated to us by Seattle Service for Peace. Nice job everyone!
