MIFA salutes volunteers at Day of Reflection and Service
Memphis, Tenn. (March 3, 2011) - MIFA’s 12th annual Day of Reflection and Service, sponsored by ServiceMaster, will be held April 2 at 10 a.m. at MIFA’s headquarters, 910 Vance Avenue.The hour-long ceremony will pay tribute to volunteers, groups, staff and faithful supporters of the 42-year-old nonprofit social service organization. In remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death 43 years ago on April 4, Day of Reflection and Service will honor King’s legacy of service. MIFA’s founding was inspired by the Sanitation Workers’ Strike and King’s assassination in 1968.
The 2011 event marks the tenth year ServiceMaster has sponsored Day of Reflection and Service. In the spirit of volunteerism, ServiceMaster employees and their families will deliver meals to homebound seniors; assemble birthday gift bags for seniors and board-up decorative plywood panels over windows and doors of several abandoned buildings near MIFA.
Members of ServiceMaster’s human resources staff will conduct a resume and life skills workshop for clients in MIFA’s transitional housing for homeless families. Clients will have their resumes critiqued and participate in mock job interviews. While parents attend the workshop, volunteers from the Downtown Kiwanis Club will read stories and give away books to their children. Volunteers from Dress for Success and Mary Kay are lending their expertise to assist clients as they prepare for interviews.
The ceremony’s keynote speech will be presented by the 2011 winner of MIFA’s student oratorical contest, Kiyah Anderson, a Central High School student. “What would you do to increase the high school graduation rate” was the topic for this year’s contest. The second-place winner is Nekiaya Elam, also from Central High School, while the third-place winner is Chrysta Smith, a student at Memphis Academy of Health Science.
Other community groups are joining MIFA and ServiceMaster in volunteer activities on April 2. They include:
- Memphis City Beautiful and LeMoyne College –MIFA neighborhood clean-up and beautification.
- Memphis Housing and Community Development and Urban Art Commission – securing plywood panels over windows and doors of abandoned buildings near MIFA
- Urban Art Commission and Clean Memphis – painting murals on abandoned and boarded buildings near MIFA
About MIFA
Founded in 1968, MIFA serves nearly 60,000 people annually as it works to unite our diverse community to address the challenges of poverty. Its mission is to engage the community to sustain the independence of seniors, transform the lives of families in crisis, and equip teens for success.
About ServiceMaster
With a network of more than 5,100 company-owned and franchise locations, Memphis-based ServiceMaster is one of the world’s largest residential and commercial service networks. The company’s high profile brands are TruGreen, TruGreen LandCare, Terminix, American Home Shield, ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids, Furniture Medic and AmeriSpec. Through approximately 27,000 corporate employees and a franchise network that independently employs over 31,000 additional people, the ServiceMaster family of brands serve more than 8.5 million customers every year and hold market-leading positions in residential and commercial lawn care and landscape maintenance, termite and pest control, home service contracts, furniture repair, home inspections, residential and commercial cleaning and disaster restoration. More information about ServiceMaster can be found at www.servicemaster.com, or follow us at http://twitter.com/ServiceMaster.