Community Against Drugs and Violence, a Scotlandville-based civic organization, has participated in service projects on Martin Luther King Jr. Day for years.
But, in 2016, the organization took its work to the northern edge of Mid City after being invited to help The Walls Project expand Baton Rouge’s MLK Day activities from one to four days, 225 reports. Some 4,000 volunteers converged on Gus Young Avenue to help beautify the neighborhood.
“I said, ‘That is awesome; we are all hands on deck,’” CADAV President Pat McCallister-LeDuff recalls about accepting The Walls Project challenge. “‘But next year, we have got to come to Scotlandville the same way.’”
She’s getting her wish.
Beginning today and running through Monday, more than 70 local organizations are expected to gather in Scotlandville to participate in the 4th Annual MLK Festival of Service. The festival brings together dozens of organizations that might not otherwise work together.
Casey Phillips, of The Walls Project, describes this year’s festival as “2 miles of urban reactivation” along Scenic Highway from Airline Highway to Swan Avenue near Southern University.
Artists will paint murals. Volunteers will clean and improve building facades, plant gardens and trees, repair fences, paint house numbers on curbs for first responders, and haul away trash.
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