By STEPHANIE BEECKEN
6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - To pay tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., a Knoxville non-profit had a day of service Monday at Morningside Community Center.
The group SEEED is trying to help make the community center a place to prepare at-risk young people for good paying, sustainable green jobs.
SEEED stands for Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development. The organization helps low income youth ages 16 to 28 get training and network with potential green employers.
For Anthony Anastasio, volunteering on the King holiday is about more than putting on a coat of paint.
"Martin Luther King was just awesome. His whole mission was about inequality and about helping the impoverished. That was his mission while he was here," Anastasio said.
SEEED Director Stan Johnson says using the holiday as a day of service just made sense.
"One of the big things he stood for was helping the impoverished, and inner city Knoxville has been one of the poorest areas in the community for a long time so why not start here?" Johnson said.
SEEED has big plans for the future of the building. Organizers hope by next year, it will be much more than a community center.
"This will be turned into a prayer garden on the backside. We'll have a display of solar, weatherization display and a bio dome, which is basically a green house," Johnson explained.
Volunteers just painted on Monday. However, by the end of the year SEEED organizers hope to collect $200,000 to add everything from a basketball court to an edible forest at the center.
Anastasio believes the improved community center will have an impact on area youth.
"Hopefully that will get them out of the environments that they are in and will give them a new vision to be productive out in the communities, different things as far as getting them jobs, as far as giving them experience," he said.
Volunteers just painted on Monday, but SEEED has big plans for the future.
