It's already been more than a week since MLK Day 2007! We can't believe it has taken us this long to talk about our favorite holiday. Favorite Holiday?, you ask. But why? Well, it's America's first (and so far only) National Day of Service!

That's right - in 1994 Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act, designating the King Holiday as a national day of volunteer service. Instead of a day off from work or school, Congress asked Americans of all backgrounds and ages to celebrate Dr. King's legacy by turning community concerns into citizen action.

Of course, no one can make you serve, because this is America, and so the indoor water parks near the MOA were totally crowded with people doing their best not to volunteer. Not that we are judging! We love indoor water parks, too - just not as much as we love organizing service projects.

So on Monday, January 15th, we got together with seniors from the Lyngblomsten community in St. Paul as well as youth groups from the congregations of St. Timothy's Lutheran Church in St. Paul and Incarnation Lutheran Church in Mounds View for an MLK Day Learning & Sharing Brunch. The idea was to combine service (in this case, literally serving a brunch) with a cross-generational dialogue about the work of Dr. King and how it has affected our nation.

Sounds kind of dry when we put it that way, but it was so much fun! The brunch was delicious (non-profit web masters love sausage), and the stories they shared were interesting and uplifting. So interesting, in fact, that we are compiling the notes taken by the youth and making a booklet commemorating the day with highlights from the seniors' stories and reactions from the youth groups. As soon as it's done, we'll have an electronic copy available on our website, so be on the lookout!

Remember this - we are living at a unique moment in history. Alive today we have the generation that was 40 years old when the Civil Rights movement was in full swing along with the generation born 40 years later. We have the opportunity to learn from our elders about the great changes in our society that Dr. King helped bring about - to hear their stories about the challenges and triumphs of the Civil Rights era.

For some of us (like these non-profit web persons) the Civil Rights era seems as distant as the Civil War, but this amazing period of American history is still alive as long as we have community members who saw it happen. Despite what you may have thought while you were sleeping through class in 11th grade, history is interesting and fun. By sitting down to chat with an old friend sometime, you'll probably learn a lot of things you never knew that you didn't know, and they'll probably learn a lot from you, too.

Sometimes, Being The Change is as easy as having a conversation over some eggs and sausage.