North Texas Residents Give Back Money to Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day

DALLAS – People celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day in different ways.

Many use the day off to attend parades, while others use it to benefit their community.

The usually serene Mount Olive Cemetery in Lewisville was seething on a Monday morning. Hundreds of volunteers came to help clean up the historic Black Cemetery.

“This is what Dr. King would like us to come together and work in the community,” said organizer Jackie Shaw. “That’s what this day is about.”

The cemetery, founded in the 1880s, is believed to contain 134 graves.

Just last year, Demkhetrik Phryni’s mother was buried there. Some of his family friends help maintain the cemetery all year round.

People like Jonathan Crawford brought their entire family to volunteer.

“Hopefully we show our girls what it means to give and be part of a community,” he said.

Acts of service come in many forms.

At Concord Church in Dallas, cars and buses full of volunteers lined up to deliver hot meals to arriving seniors and hospice caregivers.

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade in Dallas returns in person for the first time since 2020.

More than 500 local volunteers, church members, and community groups celebrated the celebration by delivering food and friendship through the Texas Nurses Association Meals on Wheels program.

Sonya Turner is a nurse who delivers meals on holidays when many regular drivers are unavailable.

Recipients like Abram Morones are grateful.

“I like having food delivered to me. It helps me,” he said.

Each Meals on Wheels route delivered by a volunteer saves VNA enough money to feed an elderly person for an entire week.

Turner is happy to play her part.

“At any time, I can go out and help and deliver food to our families and seniors who need it because we know it’s such an important thing,” she said. “And to see how people’s faces just smile warmly. It really matters to them and to me.”

Meals on Wheels volunteers completed 322 routes on Monday. The food they delivered this holiday was fed to nearly 4,500 hungry seniors at home.