(RNS) — On Saturday (May 16) in Bakersfield, California, volunteers are planning a community festival, offering attendees food, haircuts and household goods.
“It’s in one of the most impoverished parts of our community,” said Wendell Vinson, president of CityServe International and co-senior pastor of an Assemblies of God megachurch in Bakersfield. “The church is really going to their neighborhood, and then we’re mobilizing churches from that neighborhood to really get to know their neighbors better.”
The event is one example of how nonprofits and volunteers are coming together for Good Neighbor Day America, a nationwide initiative on Saturday supported by America250, the Congress-created nonpartisan organization marking the 250th anniversary of the country. School and community beautification projects involving religious and secular volunteers are among the events expected to occur in more than 1,500 sites across the nation, accompanying a “kindness challenge,” an initiative that began in recent months to encourage small acts of kindness.
“We want to empower everyone to be a good neighbor and do good,” said Gabe Bahlhorn of Love Has No Limits, a secular charity that works in the public sector and with private organizations to support families in crisis. “People basically have been challenged to just do random acts of kindness, just randomly, bless somebody, buy their coffee, open the door for someone, tell them that you appreciate them — this is large and small …