The halls of the massive school, which has known more than its share of distress, were dark and empty as Silverman greeted school police. It would be their last quiet moment for the day. Within a few hours, the labyrinth of corridors, brightly lit gyms, grand auditoriums and well-heated classrooms would be jammed with 2,500 volunteers earnestly, eagerly and loudly doing their part to honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Forty years after the civil-rights leader's assassination and 13 years since Philadelphia's first official day of service in his memory, Germantown High was chosen to serve as host for the "signature project."

Citywide, 60,000 people had volunteered. At GHS, about 75 organizations - the Red Cross, the Mural Arts Program, Germantown Deaf Ministries Fellowship, the Eagles - provided opportunities for volunteers to do good deeds.

Rakim Rogers, 17, a Germantown High junior and a volunteer, said it had been "a big, beautiful day."

"It makes me feel good that I'm one person, part of this big opportunity. . . . I'm helping somebody. I could do this every day."

The city's celebrities - Mayor Nutter, U.S. District Judge Marjorie O. Rendell, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey - found their way to a small gym at the rear of the high school for the opening ceremonies shortly after 9 a.m.

The space had been reserved for the nonprofit Cradles to Crayons program, which had set up dozens of tables. Volunteers wearing MLK Day of Service official T-shirts over their buttondown oxfords, heavy sweaters and turtlenecks were folding children's clothes and packaging toys to be donated to needy families.

In the far corner, Todd Bernstein, founder and director of the mothership - the Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service - could be seen juggling multiple walkie-talkies.

Silverman searched him out to ask if he could carve out a few minutes for a briefing before a news conference. He wanted to announce that next year, Germantown High would be home to two "career academies" - school-within-a-school programs allowing at-risk youths to combine academic courses with vocational training.

Sure, said Bernstein.

As one of Silverman's colleagues delivered the good news to a crush of photographers, Silverman shivered. He had given away his sweatshirt earlier, and was now feeling the effects of the wind barging in through an open door where the donated goods were transferred into the back of a truck.

Just then, he stepped away to take a call. He carried four communication devices: a personal cell phone; a school district phone; a two-way radio directly connected to Bernstein; and a walkie-talkie connecting him to school security, assistant principals and teachers.

That was the one he was on at the moment. He'd been summoned to get the head of maintenance to open the culinary arts shop so the caterers and a group of students could do some cooking.

"I'll be right there," he said, and took off.

Having checked on the culinary arts room - opened by the time he arrived - he shot back to the gym.

There, he exchanged handshakes and gratitude with the police commissioner and the head of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. He was greeted next by Ed Schwartz, a former city councilman who now works for a social justice organization and would be leading a forum on how to make the city safe.

Nutter slipped past a line of khaki-uniformed City Year volunteers and stood in a cluster of the city's influential. Alba Martinez, head of United Way. Sandra Dungee Glenn, chair of the School Reform Commission. Tom Brady, chief executive officer of the School District. A representative from Target, one of the 44 corporate sponsors of the day's projects.

Bernstein declared the day "a day of celebration" and underscored the need to promote volunteerism throughout the year.

Nutter said he was really starting to like his job.

Rendell recalled King's vision of a benevolent community.

And Dominique Newton, a 17-year-old Germantown student, talked about the day's simple, vital message. "Give back."

With that, Silverman was off again. Up a flight of stairs. Down another hallway. He stopped to pick up a dirty napkin. To help a woman find the rest room. He was at the room where the blood drive had fizzled down to one donor. Then he was called away for a brief confab with Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, a Germantown grad, who apologized for not being able to stay longer, because she had a cold.

On his way past a group painting a mural of King and Mahatma Gandhi, he stopped for a parade of children from the Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice. They were chanting and marching with signs that said "Stop Hate!"

Along the way, he revealed bits of his own history. Stories of how he'd witnessed the subtle and not-so-subtle ways racism could sabotage public education. The unseen and insufficiently celebrated achievements of students in a school like Germantown High. And how his great-grandfather was smuggled out of Russia in a pickle barrel.

He passed a few lawyers from Ballard Spahr who were offering free legal advice to anyone who needed it. "So far," Michael Fabius, 26, one of the lawyers, said, "there's an excess of volunteers."

"This is a hard thing for people to get," Silverman said later. "We host it. We organize it. We set it up. But it's up to the organizations to bring the volunteers in."

Some of the veteran groups knew what to do. A poetry choir and theater improv organized by Germantown Friends School drew more participants than the designated room could hold.

By noon, most projects had finished. Volunteers and custodial staff were peeling King's sayings off the walls.

Silverman was tired. All that was left, he said, was to make sure the school was cleaned up. "Then I'm going home to catch a little sleep and take my daughter out to dinner." It was her 23d birthday.

On his way past the mural project, where they were adding the final touches, a student held out a paintbrush.

"It's not too late to make your mark," he said.

Silverman declined, laughing: "I can't color inside the lines."

For more coverage of the King Day of Service, both regional and national, go to http://go.philly.com/kingday