Cincinnati, OH (May 16-17, 2006)—Service For Peace announces that a total of nineteen area Wal-Mart stores and SAM’S CLUBS will provide a $25,000 grant to establish a local chapter of Service For Peace, a global organization that works to connect diverse groups and individuals through transformative service learning experiences that improve communities and fosters peace.

“We have worked with Wal-Mart in other large communities to revitalize city parks and areas important to preserving a community’s history and sense of pride,” says Peter Hayes, Midwest Regional Director of the Service For Peace program. “Wal-Mart’s commitment to their community, and ability to provide hundreds of volunteers, has made impacts in many neighborhoods and cities, and we are excited to be able to bring this kind of large scale effort to Cincinnati and other cities in Ohio.”

A Service For Peace-Wal-Mart Day of Service is scheduled in Cincinnati for September 2006. Hundreds of Wal-Mart and SAM’S CLUB volunteers are expected to come together on that day in what is anticipated to be the largest, one day Wal-Mart volunteer project in the Cincinnati region. These Wal-Mart volunteers and their families will volunteer their hard work and elbow grease doing community service projects.

Wal-Mart and SAM’S Club will also sponsor and provide volunteers for The 1st Annual Greater Cincinnati Martin Luther King Jr. Season of Service 2007, of which Service For Peace is the lead organizer, which will take place from Dr. Kings Birthday (Jan. 15) to the anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination (April 4).

Service For Peace is a lead agency and Federal Grantee for the Martin Luther King Jr. Season of Service. In 2006 Service For Peace recruited 15,000 volunteers who participated in service learning and civic rebuilding at over 500 projects in 46 communities throughout America and overseas. Plans are underway for an expanded MLk program for 2007.

Nationwide more than 343 supporting organizations including Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Pepsi, Sara Lee, Frito Lay, State Farm Insurance, American Red Cross, Boy Scouts, municipal agencies and non-profits partner with Service For Peace during the MLK Season of Service.

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