Mayor Fischer extends Give a Day community service program to full month

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Louisville mayor Greg Fischer announced a full month of community service opportunities in the Louisville-area as part of 2022′s Give a Day campaign.

The Mayor’s Give a Day campaign will run from April 1 through April 30, with a number of individual and group service opportunities to help spread acts of compassion and give back in the city.

Partnering with Metro United Way and other community organizations, the program began in 2011 and has since grown from a one-day effort now to a full month-long event.

Fischer said while this would be his last year as Mayor announcing community plans for the event, he hopes the event will carry on for years to come.

“When I took office in 2011 and described compassion as one of our core city values, some folks were doubtful,” Fischer said in a release. “But over the past 11 years, Louisvillians have stepped up and today, this city-wide celebration of service, which humbly began as a single day of service, is now a month-long event. My hope is that we’ve inspired our community to ensure the success of Give a Day will continue long into the future.”

Several of the announced projects and initiatives for this year’s event include:

Thousands of volunteers will come together throughout April to pick up litter and beautify the city through the Brightside Community-Wide Cleanup, one of the largest Give a Day service projects. All cleanup group participants will receive Brightside litter bags and gloves. Residents also can organize their own clean-ups on streets and in neighborhoods with family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Brightside has rallied more than 103,000 volunteers during the Mayor’s Give a Day celebrations.
The 10th Annual WE Day Kentucky Celebration will take place April 20. This event has, in the past, drawn some 2,400 students and teachers to The Kentucky Center for a celebration of students’ commitment to service, and over 4,000 for the WE Walk for Compassion. This year’s celebration be a virtual/in person hybrid event at Paristown Point, with 150 students onsite and a livestream reaching 10,000 students throughout Kentucky. This year’s Call To Action will focus on the well-being of youth affected by the devastating tornado earlier this year in Western Kentucky.
Louisville Pride Foundation, which is opening the first LGBTQ+ Center in the Louisville area, will have several projects involving painting, landscaping, and other renovation and beautification work.
Love the Hungry will host a food packaging event with 100+ participants assembling 20,000 meal kits for children and families assisted through Operation Ukraine in Poland. For the past 10 years, Love the Hungry has hosted more than 40,000 volunteers of all ages who have helped create 7.5 million fortified meals shared with families vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition across the world. This includes 600,000 meals packaged during the Mayor’s Give a Day celebrations.
Habitat for Humanity will host a “spring cleaning” in the Russell community, and Molo Village will host a clean-up at the St. Peter’s United Church of Christ at 1225 W. Jefferson in preparation of a renovation project.

For more information on community projects and how to get involved, visit Metro United Way’s website.