Muhammad Ali was known as much for his humanitarian efforts around the world as for his skills inside the ring. One month after his passing, Ali’s widow Lonnie Ali is calling on members of the public to “be like Ali” and take part in a public service campaign she’s creating in her husband’s honor.
People would be asked to volunteer for a total of 75 hours, starting on Muhammad Ali’s 75th birthday on Jan. 17, 2017, and lasting throughout the year, reports The Washington Post.
The campaign will officially kick off in mid-July with a series of events, including one in Muhammad Ali’s hometown of Louisville, Ky. Lonnie Ali spoke about the project at the annual Points of Light volunteer conference in Detroit.
“He often said ‘service is the rent you pay for your room here on earth,’” she said. “The time has come for all of us to pick up the torch from Muhammad and shine our own lights on the places and people who have been in the shadows for too long.”
From The Washington Post:
The campaign will be led by a street team of college interns, who signed up charity and civic leaders in Detroit last week. Up next is Forecastle, a music festival in Louisville that attracts thousands of young people, said Donald Lassere, president and CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center, a museum and cultural center headquartered in downtown Louisville that promotes education, gender equality and global citizenship.
The effort dovetails with the center’s annual humanitarian awards, given in September to activists and change agents ages 14 to 30, and its Generation Ali initiative, which focuses on helping young people realize “they can be great by helping humanity,” Lassere said. The museum also will debut new exhibits in September that will ask questions and encourage people to “seek greatness doing service,” he said.
It’s unclear whether the campaign will continue after next year. Organizers aim to attract at least 1 million participants initially but hope the campaign will take off internationally and include millions more, Lassere said.
The Ali campaign will target families to volunteer together and young people ages 13 to 24.
The launch date of Jan. 17 also falls near the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service scheduled for Jan. 16 next year, perhaps pushing the limits of volunteerism further. However, Samantha Jo Warfield, press secretary at the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that administers MLK Day, pointed out that Ali shared some of King’s beliefs in nonviolence and community, and suggested that the two efforts might work well in tandem.
A campaign by Lonnie and Muhammad Ali could “light a spark” and invite in people who have never before been asked to volunteer, she said.
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(Photo/Video Source: Washington Post)
