MLK Day: Hard Work Makes A Dream Come True

Bright and early on MLK Day, 35 Great Basin Institute Nevada Conservation Corps (NCC) AmeriCorps members gathered with volunteers from Habitat for Humanity to build a house for a family in need. Members spent the day helping the single mother create a home of her own, and worked tirelessly to clean up three empty lots surrounding the house so that she could feel pride in her neighborhood when she looked out her window.

Krista Johnson, NCC member, shared her experience, ” I was initially disappointed that I wouldn’t be working on the house and would be cleaning up trash and pulling weeds at a vacant lot across the street until I realized the view the family would have from the front would be that of the vacant lot. It reminded me that a house never stands alone; it’s always a part of a neighborhood, the way a person is never just a single person but part of a community. By helping beautify and improve the neighborhood, we were helping the family too. In the end, I felt great about our work on MLK Day.”

The volunteers ended the day on a high note by leaving words on inspiration on the house framing. The single mother expressed the amount of gratitude she felt for those volunteers who made MLK Day, “A Day On, Not A Day Off.”

To see this story in action, check out the video that KLAS-TV 8 News Now in Las Vegas captured here!