Update December 13: Mayor Catherine Pugh announced today that the annual MLK Day Parade will continue after receiving complaints from residents and community leaders. 

“I’ve heard from residents who’d like to continue the tradition of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade & those who’d like to participate in a Day of Service,” she said in a tweet. “Why choose—we can do both!”

For the past 17 years, Baltimore has celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a parade through the streets of downtown. But this coming January, Mayor Catherine Pugh has decided to honor his legacy by encouraging others to emulate how he lived his life by hosting a Day of Service in partnership with United Way of Central Maryland.

While many residents and local organizations have practiced a day of service over the years to celebrate the Civil Rights leader’s life, Mayor Pugh believes that the city can make a larger impact if its residents come together

“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a public servant who devoted his life to the advancement of civil rights and equality,” she says on her website. “Building on this momentum, Baltimore begins a new tradition to honor this commitment and to encourage community-based organizations to organize and submit service projects that welcome volunteers of all-ages.” 

In lieu of residents lining the street that bears his name to see marching bands, steppers, and floats, residents are encouraged to volunteer in their communities as Dr. King once did. Organizations like Civic Works have already begun accepting volunteers to work on different community lots in East Baltimore to clean up and plant gardens. Many more organizations are expected to follow suit in the coming weeks.

In years past, the event has attracted hundreds of spectators from all across the region to participate in the festivities. On average, more than 50 groups have participated in the event each year ranging from high school and community bands to color guards, fraternities and sororities, dance squads, and civic organizations.

The East Coast Westsiders marching band has been performing in the parade since its inception 17 years ago. For Marvin McKenstry, Jr., the COO of the band, the parade means just as much to him as the celebration of Dr. King himself. He can’t imagine one without the other. 

“Being able to march down Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd is very special and exciting,” he said. “We don’t care about being out in the cold because we know what this holiday represents and what Dr. King represented—we want to celebrate that.”

Though the parade is clearly an important aspect of celebrating the holiday locally, Pugh insists that this new tradition will appropriately honor Dr. King: “Our communities grow stronger when we all choose to serve.”

The usually picturesque tourist destination with clear blue water and vibrantly colorful landscapes has been reduced to flooded roadways, dilapidated homes, and apocalyptic conditions since Hurricane Maria made landfall last week in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane.

Just two weeks after Hurricane Irma caused devastation in the Caribbean, Maria’s destruction has left millions of residents without power, fuel, food, or water. Governor Ricardo Rosselló of Puerto Rico estimates that 97 percent of the island is still without power and running water.

Hurricane Maria is responsible for 16 deaths in Puerto Rico, with the survivors forced to ration what little supplies remain. FEMA has been providing some lifesaving resources to the U.S. territory, but Puerto Ricans could use any additional help they can get to rebuild. Here are ways you can help from Baltimore. 

Monetary Donations
Baltimore native and NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony has created a crowd-funding campaign to help bring relief to the devastated island. To date, it has raised more than $200,000 toward the one million dollar goal.

“Hurricane Maria has caused catastrophic damage in Puerto Rico and the residents will need our help and support to rebuild,” he wrote on the page. “Please join me in raising the necessary funds to get the much-needed supplies and assistance to the people of Puerto Rico.”

The First Lady of Puerto Rico, Beatriz Rosselló, has also teamed up with corporate giants like Coca Cola, Walmart, and Walgreens to help raise money for hurricane victims with United for Puerto Rico.

The Salvation Army and American Red Cross are also accepting donations to aid survivors of the disaster that swept through the Caribbean.

Get Active
Fit4Mom Baltimore City, a local group dedicated to fitness and motherhood, will be hosting “$5 Stroller Strides for Puerto Rico” on Friday, September 29. For each mom that comes to the stroller-based fitness class, the group will donate $5 to United for Puerto Rico. After the class there will be a trivia contest and with every correct answer, Fit4Mom will donate an additional $5.

“I reached out to two former clients, one with most of her family in Puerto Rico, and one who relocated there not too long ago, to get a recommendation for a local organization we could send money to,” said Rachel Wagner, owner of Fit4Mom Baltimore. “Unidos por Puerto Rico was the only one recommended, and upon researching is also the initiative that five of our former presidents are promoting via the One America Appeal, so my decision was easily made.”

Washington D.C. nonprofit Run Hope Work is sponsoring a 5K run in Washington D.C. on October 1 to benefit victims of Hurricane Maria. A donation of $25 or more will grant you entry to the race and a Puerto Rico bandana. All funds raised will be donated to the nonprofit Friends of Puerto Rico to help rebuild the island.

SalsaNow, a local dance company that provides lessons in Latin dance, will host a fundraiser dance on Friday, October 6 at Game to help victims. For $10 participants will receive admission, lessons, and dancing.

Volunteer Time
The Salvation Army welcomes volunteers to travel to Puerto Rico to assist in numerous capacities like offering food to rescue workers and survivors or providing emotional and spiritual support to victims. In August, Chas Eby, communications director for Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), told us that Marylanders should consider contacting known organizations to get involved.

“There is a website that local residents can go to, the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster,” he said. “The organizations listed are reputable and will be more than happy to accept help from anywhere they can get it.”

Devastation hit the city of Houston, Texas hard on Friday as Hurricane Harvey made landfall. The rains lasted for three days, leaving 30,000 victims displaced and more than two feet of rain across the city. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Brock Long said “this is a landmark event for Texas. 

On a local level, Chas Eby—communications director for Maryland Emergency Management Agency—emphasized the importance of being prepared as a tropical storm offshoot of Harvey travels up the Atlantic Coast.

“Having a preparedness plan is extremely vital,” he said. “We do not expect to experience impacts like Houston, but we will get a significant amount of rain.” 

While many Houstonians are being rescued and evacuated, forecasters say that more rain is coming. Recovering from a disaster of this magnitude could take years, according to FEMA, and any assistance is useful. As emergency crews, charities, and aid groups in Texas gear up to help the victims of Harvey, here are some ways you can help from Baltimore.

Monetary donations

You may not have $25,000 to donate like comedian Kevin Hart, but small donations can make the difference in providing food and shelter for one person. Donors can text HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation to the American Red Cross. Catholic Charities USA, the relief agency for the U.S. Catholic Church, is accepting donations online and by phone by simply texting CCUSADISASTER to 71777.

NFL star and Houston Texan JJ Watt created a crowd-funding campaign to raise money for the victims of Harvey.

“Hurricane Harvey has taken a catastrophic toll on our great city, while leaving many stranded and in need of assistance,” Watt wrote. “We must come together and collectively help rebuild the aspects of our community members’ lives that were damaged or lost. Any donation that you can spare, no matter how large or small, is greatly appreciated. We will come out of this stronger than ever. We are Texans.”

Watt kicked off the efforts with a personal donation of $100,000 toward the $500,000 goal.

The mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, has also established a Hurricane Harvey relief fund with the Greater Houston Community Foundation (GHCF).  The GHFC will accept tax-deductible donations for the victims of the recent flooding in Houston. 

GoFundMe has also started multiple campaigns to raise funds for victims and animal relief in the wake of the devastation.

Local dining establishments have also recently vowed to support the cause. On Sunday, September 3, Pikesville’s La Food Marketa will be donating 50 percent of all brunch sales to relief efforts in Houston. 

Volunteer

Donating your time can be instrumental in assisting the relief efforts. Organizations like the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army deploy volunteers to disaster areas to assist in numerous capacities like offering food to rescue workers and survivors or providing emotional and spiritual support to victims. 

Eby says that Marylanders should consider volunteering to “known” organizations as a means to get involved.

“There is a website that local residents can go to, the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, to find a list of groups that are participating in the efforts in Houston,” he said. “The organizations listed are reputable and will be more than happy to accept help from anywhere they can get it.”

Check in with family and friends

Social media platforms like Facebook have allowed users to check in and share their “safe” status with friends. But if you happen to have family and friends that live in the Houston area, Eby says it’s best to check on them directly to ensure they are safe.

“We encourage local residents to reach out to anyone they may know in the disaster area,” he said. “If they have experienced power outages or are injured and can’t get help, you may be able to assist in reaching out to first responders even from Baltimore.”

It doesn’t take Joe Ehrmann long to explode dumb-jock stereotypes. Earlier this year, the former Colts great—who’s been called “the most important coach in America”—gave a TED Talk at Morgan State University that brought the audience to its feet, and some listeners to tears, in a little more than 10 minutes. Of all the thinkers and creative types who spoke that day, he was the only one to get a sustained standing ovation. His coaching workshops at the Patterson Park Youth Sports and Education Center are even more startling. Dressed casually in a blue polo shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes, the 64-year-old Ehrmann exudes a gentle power. His seen-it-all expression and upbeat demeanor suggest sadness and hope, which is disarming in a man so large. He works Eastern and Native-American philosophies, mythology, social activism, Christianity, and African-American history into his talk and often sounds more like a self-help guru, or life coach, than a defensive coach.

Someone once asked, prior to a presentation, if he would be discussing offense or defense, and he responded: “Neither. I’ll be talking philosophy.” And that’s pretty much what he does. Ehrmann’s workshops are required for coaches using the park’s new, multipurpose field and sponsored by Living Classrooms Foundation, which hopes to make his teaching program a citywide model.

Ehrmann tells the dozen coaches assembled at the youth center that sports are a vehicle for social change, which elicits a few puzzled looks. He stresses the importance of making sports co-curricular, rather than extra-curricular, so they become an extension of the school day, and he talks about players’ social and intellectual development and the importance of empathy and kindness.

He then pivots into more emotional, and potentially uncomfortable, territory. He insists that hugs are more effective than the histrionics in heavy rotation on SportsCenter and suggests his listeners ask themselves, “How does it feel to be coached by me?” He pauses a moment before saying there are two kinds of coaches: transactional and transformational. The transactional coach uses his players to meet his own needs. The transformational coach, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, helps people recognize things in themselves they otherwise wouldn’t see.

At this point, you can practically see the lightbulbs going off over the heads of his listeners, as they nod in agreement and scribble notes to themselves. Everyone, it seems, has had these types of coaches, and the memories are so clear that Ehrmann doesn’t have to ask which they’d rather be.

Ehrmann, knowing he’s connected with these men, ups the ante even further by saying they must also confront social justice issues, issues that affect the lives of not only their players, but also the community at large. He touches on economic disparity, racism, sexism, gender violence, homophobia, and how social messaging and warped perceptions of masculinity and femininity adversely affect boys and girls.

He covers a remarkable amount of territory over the course of an hour, but never loses sight of his main point: “The playing field is a field of transformation.”

Ehrmann grew up in Buffalo and came to Baltimore in 1973. “They’re both blue-collar, shot-in-your-beer towns,” he says, sitting in his Hunt Valley office, which is filled, not with sports memorabilia, but with books—the range of titles includes Growing Up in America, The Male Ego, and Dean Smith’s A Coach’s Life.

The Colts selected Ehrmann in the first round of the draft, the tenth pick overall, out of Syracuse. A ferocious defensive tackle, he lined up alongside Mike Barnes, Fred Cook, and John Dutton to form the team’s much-vaunted “Sack Pack.” His anger issues, stemming largely from an abusive father, played well on the football field. Off the field, he became a fixture in Fells Point and drank and drugged away his mental and physical pain.

At the height of Ehrmann’s football fame, his 19-year-old brother, Billy, was diagnosed with cancer and admitted to The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Coming to grips with his brother’s illness had a sobering effect on Ehrmann, who spent the better part of four months confronting death and suffering in a pediatric oncology ward. “It made me question my purpose in life,” he recalls.

A local psychologist gave him a copy of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. “It was the beginning of a real metamorphosis for me,” recalls Ehrmann, “because Frankl says that the greatest of all human freedoms is the ability to change how you respond to any given situation. No matter what life deals you, you can find meaning in it and add value to it.”

After Billy passed away in 1978, Ehrmann founded Baltimore’s Ronald McDonald House and dedicated it to his brother’s memory. In 1980, his last season with the Colts, he entered the seminary as something of a wounded warrior and emerged an ordained minister committed to social justice. By that time, he was married—he met his wife, Paula, through a radio contest in which he was the “celebrity date”—and winding down his football career. He was also looking to make a difference.

He started preaching at Grace Fellowship Church in Timonium and founded a community center, The Door, in East Baltimore. Middle East was an area plagued by all sorts of urban ills, but Ehrmann didn’t shy from the challenge. In fact, he and Paula moved to nearby Buthcers Hill.

“He cared about standing up for those who were unable to stand up for themselves,” says Paula.

“Playing football gave me the opportunity to cross so many social and economic strata,” he says, “and I wanted to confront the discrepancies between the haves and have-nots.”

One day, he ran into Biff Poggi, an old friend from his Colts days, who was delivering a carload of donated food to The Door’s food pantry. As a teenager, Poggi snuck into the weight room during Colts workouts at Goucher College. Some players grumbled and wanted him tossed out, but Ehrmann befriended him. “Even then, he was reflective and kind,” says Poggi.

After reconnecting at The Door, they stayed in touch and talked about football and philosophy. When Poggi was named head coach at Gilman, he asked Ehrmann to be his defensive coordinator. Ehrmann had hoped to coach at Lake Clifton High School but says the city wouldn’t let him, because he wasn’t a teacher. He accepted Poggi’s offer, which changed his life and set him on his current path.

With Poggi’s blessing, Ehrmann brought his holistic approach, philosophical bent, and empathic worldview to the locker room. “When we first started, Biff got it immediately,” recalls Ehrmann. “We were just coaching out of our hearts and trying to create a team where kids could be real and authentic and become good people. We knew that creating more football players wasn’t the answer to any of society’s problems.”

Writer Jeffrey Marx, a former Colts ball boy, followed Gilman’s 2001 season and documented Ehrmann’s approach in his 2003 book, Season of Life, which turned out to be a bestseller. It gave Ehrmann a national platform. “I started getting calls from all over the country,” he says. “After one or two speaking engagements, I saw the power of that book, and I decided to take the message outside [Gilman], while Biff stayed inside. I’ve been on the road almost 10 years now, speaking and conducting workshops.”

Poggi calls his friend’s work “prophetic,” and Ehrmann’s client list includes the NFL, NCAA, and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. But as Matt Hanna, a coach at the Patterson Park workshop notes, “What Joe does is the missing link in a lot of settings. He teaches things that should be common sense.” And Ehrmann himself will tell you the scope of his work has evolved to become “much broader than the sports piece.”

His four children are grown and out of the house, so he can devote more time to expanding his reach. Because his message applies to just about any community setting imaginable (from the boardroom to the classroom), he’s also worked with the Naval and Coast Guard academies, Teach For America, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, family shelters, and companies such as Verizon and Boeing.

He works with Living Classrooms through its Target Investment Zone, which provides a variety of services to East Baltimore neighborhoods. “We’ve admired Joe for many years, and he became a founding partner of that program,” says Living Classrooms President and CEO James Piper Bond, who views Ehrmann’s efforts as “a health-and-wellness initiative more than simply a sports program.”

These days, Ehrmann also focuses a lot of energy on the issues of child sexual abuse and gender violence. After scandals at the likes of Penn State and Vanderbilt, he feels compelled to speak out and raise awareness. “Addressing all these issues is basically the same work I did at The Door, just on a macro level,” says Ehrmann. “You know, you don’t have to be poor to be concerned about poverty. You don’t have to be black to be concerned about racism. You don’t have to be a woman to be concerned about sexism.

“There’s a power in the collective, in learning about and from other people. That’s how you build a team.”