It would have been easy to stay at home.
But for more than 1,000 volunteers in the Birmingham area, it would not have been right.
Those volunteers fanned out at dozens of work sites from the city to the suburbs. They spent Martin Luther King Day performing tangible, valuable community service.
"It's a chance to really do something to help someone else," said Sandra Brown as she joined with others painting a colorful mural in North Birmingham.
The mural, which depicts a young girl and her dream for the neighborhood, stretches for an entire city block along 30th Avenue North.
Artists came up with the concept. Kresge Arts and the Cultural Alliance provided a grant to pay for it. Main Street Birmingham coordinated the volunteers -- a diverse group from all corners of the city.
"You can think about the things that Dr. King fought for," said Brown, who is the North Birmingham neighborhood president. "If you will take a look at the people that are working, we have blacks and whites working together. And we didn't have to offer anyone a dime."
Elsewhere, the volunteer agency Hands On Birmingham coordinated Day of Service activities at 35 locations.
"Each day is a gift, and if you're given a day, you should definitely use it to go out in the community and serve and do something that's bigger than yourself," said Terra Garmon as she volunteered at Community Kitchens-Woodlawn at Grace Episcopal Church.
Members of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority also took part. Volunteers pointed out that acts of service should not be limited to the official Day of Service.
"We have something scheduled each month. We don't take any breaks," said Rosalyn Dixon, who spoke of the meaning of serving people on Martin Luther King Day.
"It just follows in his footsteps, and I'm pretty sure that that's the whole meaning of the day," she said.
Not far away, dozens of high school students volunteered their day away from school to help clean up the base of Ruffner Mountain. The students worked along a trail next to Ruffner Road in Irondale, an area that has long been plagued by illegal trash dumping.
"We found a shoe. We found a chair. And I think we found a lawnmower at some point," said Shaina Hamby, a Homewood High School student who volunteered through the group YouthServe Birmingham.
The work was hard. But it was worth it.
"It's really self-rewarding," Hamby said. "It's one of those things that you feel good about when you complete."
There is also the benefit to the environment -- and to Ruffner Mountain itself, a natural gem in an urban area.
"It gets people interested in Ruffner Mountain, helping preserve our mission of conservation, recreation, and education," said Nick Bieser, a conservation land manager at the Ruffner Mountain Nature Center.
In Birmingham's Collegeville neighborhood, workers from Honda Manufacturing of Alabama in Lincoln showed up with their families to clean up Maclin Park.
"We had volunteered with Hands On Birmingham this past spring. Right after the tornadoes that came through, we did a lot of volunteering," said Stephanie Hill Alexander of Honda. "And they contacted us about volunteering again today. We had over 50 associates that signed up to come out today on their day off."
Alexander and others were cleaning up a playground. Additional volunteers were resurfacing a basketball court. Others were painting or picking up trash.
While most of the volunteers came from Honda, others had simply heard about the cleanup and wanted to take part.
"It's about high time I do something to help the community," said Maxine Collins of Birmingham.
She added that the types of service performed should not be limited to just one day of the year. The mission continues, she said, in the days to come.
"Same as what we're doing today," she said. "Don't wait to just this day to do it. Each and every day, make things better."
Above: Mural along 30th Avenue North in North Birmingham
Above: Honda employees and their families volunteer to clean up Maclin Park in Birmingham.
Above: Teens clean up tires and trash at Ruffner Mountain.
