Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Freeda Cathcart (left) and Carolyn Greene collect food donations at James Madison Middle School during Roanoke Indoor Soccer League games Saturday. Cathcart organized the drive to benefit the Southwest Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank.

A book drive, blood drive and park cleanup are among the events slated to take place in Roanoke on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The president-elect put out a call for good deeds, and some little members of the Roanoke indoor soccer league answered.

Along with shin pads, players arrived at their Saturday games with cans of food for the hungry, as people across the country geared up for a long weekend of volunteering and public service. Some who helped out weren't soccer players at all.

"Michelle Obama e-mailed and told me to come do this today," said Vicki Weiss, as she dropped off canned tuna and beef soup outside the gymnasium of James Madison Middle School in Roanoke.

It was supposed to be a day of service, though it is turning out to be a weekend of service. President-elect Barack Obama has asked the country to spend Martin Luther King Jr. Day in selfless duty and, with building enthusiasm for his Tuesday inauguration, hundreds of projects have sprung up.

People will sew an "I Have a Dream" quilt in New York City, shovel snow for the elderly in Chicago and pick up garbage along Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Roanoke has a dozen events in the works for Monday, said Chelsea Koon, local coordinator for the National Day of Service. They include a blood drive, book drive and "friendly visits" with senior citizens.

One group will attack Springwood Burial Park, a neglected and historically black cemetery in Northwest Roanoke, with pruning shears and chain saws to clear the debris on Monday.

Other events will tend toward celebration -- including the "All Can Achieve the Dream," a photo show and reception at the O. Winston Link Museum on Monday evening.

A full list of projects and events can be found at www.usaservice.org.

Barack Obama, along with his vice president-elect, Joe Biden, are expected to volunteer around Washington on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Indeed, Monday's holiday will see most of the service work ("Make it a day on, not a day off," advises the Corporation for National and Community Service).

But the Star City Challenge, a food drive for the Southwest Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank in Salem, was well under way as the soccer games ended Saturday. Despite a recent surge in food bank donations "our shelves remain relatively empty," said Dave Bethel, director of operations. "Demand has gone up tremendously."

Freeda Cathcart, the food challenge organizer, and friend Carolyn Green loaded the cans that had been dropped off throughout the day into the back of Cathcart's car.

"I've worked more for this man than I have for any of my three husbands," Green chuckled as she talked of Obama. Before the election, that meant phone calls and canvassing, but she had no intention of stopping. "I realize he can't do it by himself," she said. "We are going to have to work."