ORLANDO, Fla. — To honor Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, the Orlando Magic kicked off a week of service projects across Central Florida on Monday.  And they began at a place that offers homes to hundreds of people who were formerly homeless.

What You Need To Know

  • Nearly 300 Orlando Magic employees began working several service projects across Central Florida

  • Orlando Magic employees will do service projects for 16 nonprofit organizations

  • One service project involved painting, gardening and general beautification at Maxwell Terrace Apartments, where Pathlight HOME houses hundreds of people previously homeless

Adly Santiago Rivera decided to spend part of her holiday weekend painting outside other people’s homes.

“We have other long weekends that we can go out and enjoy your family, but just taking a few hours out of the day and going out there in the community - and then we can enjoy the rest of the day – a few hours – and do whatever we want to do,” said Rivera.

Rivera and nearly 300 Orlando Magic employees gave up the day off and worked several service projects across Central Florida.  Rivera joined a group that’s painting, gardening and cleaning up at Maxwell Terrace Apartments, where an organization called Pathlight HOME places hundreds of people who’ve had trouble finding a place to live.  

“It’s one of the most important things that we do as an organization,” said Rivera.

During Hurricane Ian, a retention pond on property overflowed sending a foot and a half of water into a couple buildings.  That displaced about 90 residents for a while.  In many ways, the community is still repairing from that.

“It’s really meaningful to Pathlight HOME because this helps with the beautification of the property, helping us maintain, especially since our focus has been going door to door taking care of those 93 units over the past few months,” said Pathlight HOME President and CEO Babette Allen.

A little new paint means a lot to residents like Steven Baker.

“It impresses you, because everybody wants to live in a clean place, and these people are working on a holiday,” said Baker.

Rivera moved to Orlando from Puerto Rico many years ago.  She says Central Florida has given her a lot, so she wants to give back.

“We all get this day off because of the sacrifices and all the effort that was put in by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, so it feels great to be able to give back, and to be able to help the Central Florida community,” said Rivera.

Orlando Magic employees will do service projects for 16 nonprofit organizations, concluding with an in-game celebration of Dr. King’s legacy at the Magic’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, January 20th.