Photo from 2013 MLK Service Project. Source: http://www.mlkserviceproject.com/

Lee Ann Harvey gets little sleep these days. The city’s Lifelong Community Coordinator has a lot of volunteers to coordinate ahead of this weekend’s MLK Service Project.

Hundreds of people attend Decatur’s annual three days of community service to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Volunteers team-up to repair the homes the city’s elderly residents. Everyone will gather at The Solarium on West Hill Street in Oakhurst on Saturday morning, 9 a.m., and will fan out from there. There are 13 homes slated for major repairs and another 11 that have smaller projects.  The crews will also try to fix up as many seniors’ yards as they can get to over the weekend, Harvey said.

Last year, 1,000 people showed up. Harvey expects a similar turnout this year.

“People to love to sign up the week leading into the project. I’ve been hearing from a lot of folks who’d like to get involved,” Harvey said. “I need to get all of the volunteers assigned to various projects.”

There will be shifts from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Monday. There’ll be one shift on Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Harvey said the project has a particular need for volunteers with experience in home construction.

“We’d love to get more volunteers that have home repair skills, people who have done remodeling of their own homes, carpenters,” Harvey said. “We love skilled carpenters.”

There will be food available for people who attend and pitch in.

Harvey said people can show up the day of if they want, but the organizers prefer to know in advance if you’re planning to help. If you’d like to volunteer your time this year, you can contact Harvey by email at: [email protected]