Governor Corbett is offering encouragement to students working on dozens of service projects in honor of this year's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday.
Students filed into a Harrisburg school on their day off. Many wore sweat pants, stopped to sign their names to attendance sheets and picked up t-shirts emblazoned with the words "Central Pennsylvania MLK Day of Service."
Governor Corbett says this holiday is a bit different from others, like Presidents' Day, next month. "Besides the fact that we know about the presidents, what do we know happens? Sales in the stores. Labor Day celebrates labor in this country, but it's really a day off of labor," said Corbett "Only Martin Luther King seems to call us out of our houses, into our communities, to do volunteer work."
Corbett recognized members of the military, teachers, and government employees as doing community service every day they go to work.
He said the kind of service that honors King's memory can happen any time. "It doesn't have to be today. It's nice today. But in many respects, this is ceremonial," said Corbett. "It's what the service is that you're going to do tomorrow, or Saturday, or next week, or on July the second, or whatever day it may be."
The governor is helping to serve free meals to the hungry today at the Boys and Girls Club of Central Pennsylvania. The regional effort to promote community projects for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service began in 2009.