LANCASTER – Around 20 volunteers came out Saturday to participate in various tasks, including painting tiles, completing two murals, and much more. The volunteers helped to improve a space to be used to teach kids, teens and families a number of recreational skills at the Artist Lofts, which is located behind the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) on The BLVD.
“It’s really great to see all of the volunteers come out to help,” said Wayne Crews, owner. “It shows that they really care about their community.”
The Artist Lofts volunteers joined more than 100 community service organizations, businesses, and volunteer groups (2,000 volunteers) for the 6th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service this year.
In 1994, Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act, designating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a national day of volunteer service. Lancaster has celebrated the King holiday for more than 20 years; transforming the event in 2008 after determining that a day of service would be the best way to engage the largest number of citizens and honor Dr. King’s memory and philosophies.
View sights from the service project at the Artist Lofts on Saturday.
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Stinger says
Out of sheer curiosity… Why does a brand new facility off of ‘Da Blvd’ built with city funds require ‘sprucing up?’
Could the City of Lancaster find no other places within the city limits needing said ‘sprucing up?’
Resident Cynic says
Maybe because there aren’t enough artists living at the Artist’s Lofts? It’s not exactly a mecca for aspiring artists. So someone’s got to bring the art, right?
Tonia Crews says
Yes, we did bring it! The owners of the Lofts have allowed “others” to move in, not artists, and took away the art gallery.
Tonia Crews says
To satisfy curiosity, the MLK day of service was at the Academy, below the artists lofts, NOT part of the lofts themselves. the Academy of Style is a privately owned, NON city entity, owned by Tonia and Wayne Crews. we teach music, art, acting, modeling, sword fighting, parkour, dance, and instruments to kids and teens. Although the article says we are new and “will be having classes” the reality is we are there now for 2 years, and get NO funding from the BLVD, city gov’t, or others. We need sprucing up due to the fact that we have no extra funds to paint and spruce up the studio where we teach, unless we ask for volunteers. This is our 5th year as a MLK Day project leader, and we offer alot to the community as mentors to the youth in the AV. Just for clarification, we asked the city to provide volunteers for us, that’s it. We did the rest alone, and paid out of our own pockets for the paint and supplies, not to mention FREE classes for all the teen volunteers.
Jazzybby says
Unity is beautiful.