For DOT, Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday is no day off from public service

As we have done for several years now, DOT celebrated the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday by practicing one of our nation's core values: responsibility to your community.  For team DOT, that meant traveling a few blocks from our Washington, DC, headquarters to Tyler Elementary School. 

At Tyler, volunteers spent the day working on various clean-up and beautification projects indoors and out.  Led by Deputy Secretary John Porcari, DOTers and their kids logged a pretty full day.

Deputy Secretary Porcari is not afraid to get down on his knees for Tyler Elementary

Whether it was raking and sweeping outside or painting inspiring messages on the interior walls or writing math facts between steps on the school's stairways, the point was the same: to leave a better Tyler Elementary School for students arriving on Tuesday morning.

The DOT volunteers at Tyler were just a few of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who showed up at projects across the country yesterday to answer what Dr. King called "life's most persistent and urgent question: What are you doing for others?"

Wesley Shoemaker pitches in outside the school

Under the Obama Administration, the Corporation for National and Community Service has transformed the annual celebration of Dr. King's birthday into a National Day of Service.  And I can think of no more fitting tribute to honor him.

As President Obama said yesterday, "There's nobody who can't serve. Nobody who can't help somebody else. And whether you're seven or six or whether you're 76, then you can find opportunities to make an enormous difference in your community."

Caitlin Shoemaker painting the stairways

I know that the professionals at DOT make a difference every day, and it only adds to my respect for them to see how many responded to yesterday's call to service.  Thank you to Deputy Secretary Porcari and everyone at DOT who took a "day on" and not a day off yesterday.  And thank you to all those across the country who marked yesterday's holiday by serving in your communities.

Climbing the stairs will be an opportunity to review basic math facts, thanks to Acting RITA Administrator Greg Winfree

Comments

[Mike Licht]

Great job sprucing up Tyler Elementary. If you'd like to work with students there, Jan's Tutoring House has been helping Tyler kids for over 20 years.

To find out more, go to:

http://janstutoringhouse.org/home/Home.html