TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

On an unusually chilly morning that could have been spent lying in bed, 17 students from Golden Valley High voluntarily showed up outside a Brundage Lane church Monday and got ready to pick up trash for three hours straight.

They weren't alone. Literally hundreds of young people from across the city turned out to comb the streets of southeast Bakersfield, removing garbage, painting over graffiti and otherwise improving neighborhoods many of them had probably never visited.

The reason for their efforts: to honor the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whose national holiday gave them the day off school.

The leader of Golden Valley's delegation, senior David Villegas, described the event as a sort of duty.

"It's not a day off, but it's a day to kind of help out in the community," he said.

In more ways than one, Bakersfield embraced the theme of service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As young people braved the cold to pick up trash in the area south of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park, civic leaders gathered for a sermon on the spiritual implications of offering one's time.

At the park on East California Avenue, hundreds of community leaders convened for an annual buffet breakfast headlined by the Rev. Antonio Marquez Alfred, senior pastor at St. John Missionary Baptist Church on Brundage Lane.

Alfred's speech focused on the goal of service -- holiness -- as stated in the Book of Romans in the New Testament.

"We used to serve sin, we used to serve disobedience," Alfred said. "But now we serve righteousness. Now we serve obedience."

Indeed, spirituality took center stage Monday. In public prayers, local clergymen and politicians alike invoked both Jesus Christ and the legacy of the civil rights leader -- a pastor himself -- in calling for unity and selfless dedication to community.

For some of Monday's volunteers, those themes mixed with a desire to set a good example for the next generation.

Bakersfield resident Laura Grant brought along three of her grandchildren as she picked up trash, mattresses and discarded furniture. After that, they painted over graffiti and joined students from Cal State Bakersfield in repainting lines on a neglected basketball court.

"To me, it's about coming together as one to make a difference," Grant said.

Thirteen-year-old Shalay Williams shared a similar thought. Part of Emerging Young Leaders, a sorority mentorship program for local girls between the ages of 12 and 14, she said the day's volunteerism honored King's call to unity across races.

"He all wanted us to come together and become one and become friends and just help each other," said Williams, an eighth-grader at Emerson Middle School.

Evani Rodriguez, a sophomore at Golden Valley High who volunteered along with others in the school's delegation, said the event was actually fun. But more than that, she said, it honored King's beliefs.

"If he was still alive," she said, "he would be really happy to know that people still look up to him."