TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service encourages people to volunteer to better the community. In South Tucson, the community did exactly that.
David Garcia with Barrio Restoration led a community clean-up outside of the Luna Y Sol Cafe. “We’re just right here trying to represent the hood. MLK day is significant to the neighborhood because it started with somebody who wanted to make changes," said Garcia.
Volunteers cleaned the alley while local artists painted a justice-themed mural featuring Martin Luther King Jr. The mural is the first of what's going to be a "rotating mural wall" outside of the Luna Y Sol Cafe.
“The idea of the rotating mural just sparked when I told him we were going to be doing this day of service to kind of just wrap around this whole concept to represent the legacy Dr. Martin Luther King has left behind in the community," said Selina Barajas, co-owner of the Luna y Sol Cafe.
Barajas has a dream beyond coffee, she wants to create a space for community. She's built relationships with other community leaders like David Garcia to bring the vision to life.
"All the interactions, all the conversations, we’re all united and we all impact one another," she said.
The Luna Y Sol Cafe is not open yet, but Barajas is building her community for when it does. One of the relationships she's built is with the Tucson Audubon Society. For this day of service, organizers led volunteers in making bee boxes.
"They’re a really integral part of creating habitat in urban spaces. So we're making a special one for Luna Y Sol cafe to commemorate creating a habitat of the space,” said Stephanie Kopplin with Tucson Audubon Society.
United Ways in Tucson and Southern Arizona helped with the event by facilitating and coordinating volunteer efforts. This is the organization's second time working with Luna Y Sol Cafe and Barrio Restoration and it's second annual day of service celebration.
“Our focus is bringing the community together and utilizing these volunteer projects to enable that vision. And so that’s the goal today,” said Stephanie Goetz with United Ways AZ.
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Reyna Preciado is a reporter for KGUN 9, she joined the KGUN 9 team in July of 2022 after graduating Arizona State University. Share your story ideas with Reyna by emailing reyna.preciado@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or Twitter.
