A day of service for several volunteers

CEDAR RAPIDS - A day to remember a man with a lasting legacy inspires more than 20 volunteers to do community service for some grateful people Saturday.

“There's nothing partisan about servicing our fellow man and woman,” said Congressman Dave Loebsack.

And Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's birthday is the day Loebsack and several volunteers tackled cleaning up and fixing homes of some seniors in Cedar Rapids.

“Painting and scraping, cleaning up inside and out, taking things down, putting them up, painting ceilings doing storm doors,” said Organizing for America member Helene Golden.

The day has a special meaning honoring a man who stood for so much.

“This is a day on not a day off,” Golden said .

Dr. King lived by many things and there's one Golden stands by.

“There's only one thing urgent and persistent in life and that is what you do for others,” said Golden.

All three homes that volunteers worked on are in the floods zone.

“We all know how important volunteerism is here for Iowa during the flood of 2008 and especially in this part of the city,”  Loebsack said.