Martin Luther King Jr Day is also the National Day of Service, proclaimed by Congress in 1994, to bring together people from different backgrounds to meet needs in their community.
The Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that leads the Day of Service effort, says over 10,000 service projects are planned in all 50 states.
One of those is at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument south of Harrison, where from 10-to-noon volunteers will help organize and index historical photographs from the Agate Springs Ranch and surrounding areas of Sioux County.
Park Ranger Tera Lynn Gray says the Agate Fossil Beds photo archive is an important cultural resource that can’t be used to its fullest potential at this time.
Anyone who wants to help simply needs to show up this morning because the park will provide what little instruction and materials are needed.
Gray says the work itself is pretty much just looking at pictures and writing down a description.
A sandwich lunch and a behind-the-scenes tour of the Agate Fossil Beds archive storage area will be provided for those who signed up in advance, but Gray emphasizes that you don’t have to be registered to come and help.
Gray says today’s work is an early step toward hopefully eventual digitizing of all the photographs so they can be accessed online by the general public.