Three Ann Arbor organizations were among 30 to receive grant funding today for Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service projects, the Michigan Community Service Commission announced.

The funding comes from the Michigan Community Service Commission, the Michigan Nonprofit Association, the Michigan Campus Compact, and the Volunteer Centers of Michigan. Some $15,000 will be distributed to non-profits and community organizations around the state.

The four groups have been collaborating on MLK projects for a few years now, said Elyse Walter, spokeswoman for the community service commission. But 2011 is the first time they’ve made grant funding available for such projects.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in honor of the late civil rights leader by an act of Congress in 1994 and falls on the third Monday each January. While some circles observe King day by taking off school and work, the more recent trend has been to use the day off to do good of some sort. This year, MLK Day falls on Jan. 17.

In Ann Arbor, each of the three grant recipients has its own plan for how to use the funds. More than 100 organizations applied for the grants, which range from $200 to $1,000, and more than 90 percent of the recipients were awarded half or more of what they'd asked for in the application process, Walter said.

The city’s Natural Area Preservation department, which received a grant of $400, will use the money to facilitate a “stewardship volunteer workday” at the Furstenberg Nature Area on Fuller Road. While NAP hosts volunteer workdays of its own throughout the year, the workday on MLK will mobilize volunteers to remove invasive species from the 38-acre park.

Volunteers working with the Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative of Washtenaw County will renovate a formerly foreclosed house in Ypsilanti so a local family can call it home. That project is in conjunction with the local Habitat for Humanity, and it also received $400, Walter said.

The Ann Arbor Community Center will use its $250 grant to host a health-career information fair for young people considering careers in the growing field.

Grant recipients are permitted to use the funding to promote and facilitate the event, and even for refreshments, if they choose. There is an iron-clad rule against using the grants to pay volunteers. As Walter said, “If they’re being paid, they’re not volunteers.”

For information on how to participate in MLK Day of Service, visit http://www.michigan.gov/mcsc.

James David Dickson can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com.