A day of service to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

<p>At Community Baptist Church in Santa Rosa on Monday nurse Cheryl Lane pricked Fayretta Johnson's finger to test her blood sugar level.</p><p>“That wasn't bad at all, though I'm glad I don't have to do that every day,” said Johnson, who is “over 67 and still breathing” and admits going to the doctor only for emergencies.</p><p>Lane was among a crew of nurses volunteering to test blood sugar, check blood pressure, lead exercise classes and give vaccines at the church's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.</p><p>Volunteers across the country used the holiday to paint, clean, vaccinate and take part in other service activities as part of the 2010 King Day of Service — the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service.</p><p>“I think we celebrate this day because he helped black people have the same rights as white people,” said 12-year old Corey Riddle, a volunteer at Valley Vista Childcare Center on North Webster Street in Petaluma. “He helped so much. I'm giving back by doing what he did.”</p><p>By lunchtime, Corey had prepped walls for painting, put tape off the molding and cleaned every piece of furniture inside a doll house.</p><p>“There's so much stuff,” said Corey, who was barely visible among piles of toys separated into cleaned and to-be-cleaned piles. “We've been washing all of it, even the Barbies.”</p><p>Sarah Shaw, 27, of Petaluma sorted through dozens of tiny pink, blue and yellow plastic doll shoes at a low children-sized table. “It's just nice to do something positive, especially on Martin Luther King Day,” said Shaw, who came to the volunteer event with her boyfriend's family.</p><p>Outside, Chris Miller, 30, an Internet technology employee at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa, filled bike and scooter tires with air.</p><p>Riddle, Shaw and Miller were among 30 people, mostly Kaiser Permanente employees, who scrubbed the child care center's two rooms Monday. The group was brought together by Rebuilding Together Petaluma, a group that organizes volunteer activities.</p><p>“Every day we're with the children; we don't have time to do this level of detailed cleaning,” said Bonnie Weekley, director of the center. She guessed that the walls were last painted 18 years ago. “In the summer we do some detail work but we have two people — 30 people is just incredible.” </p><p>At the church, people lined up to join the congregation's annual civil rights march and nurses packed up medical supplies. About 70 people received H1N1 vaccinations at the church that day, said Kim Caldewey with the Sonoma County Department of Health Services.</p><p>Monday's celebration was the 15th year that health has been a prime focus at the church's Martin Luther King Jr. event, said Rev. James Coffee.</p><p>“There were a lot of places where blacks had no access to health care services,” said Coffee, 76, who grew up in rural Oklahoma. “We didn't know about nutrition, we ate whatever we could get our hands on.”</p><p>Coffee said he hoped the volunteers would encourage people to be proactive about their health.</p><p>“Maybe after this day they'll go to Kaiser or go to a clinic,” Coffee said.</p>