One day before his inauguration, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama honored Martin Luther King Jr. Monday, tapping into the late civil rights icon's legacy to usher in a national cause for service and voluntarism.

With all pre-inaugural celebrations coming to a pause on the Martin Luther King Day of Jan. 19, which marks King's 80th birthday, Obama called on fellow Americans to dedicate themselves to a day of service.

"Dr. Martin Luther King's was a life lived in loving service to others. As we honor that legacy, it's not a day just to pause and reflect, it's a day to act," he said in a statement issued in the early morning.

The president-elect called on the American people to "turn today's efforts into an ongoing commitment to enriching the lives of others in their communities, their cities, and their country."

Obama's appeal for direct and sustained action in honor of King came a day after his inaugural festivities opened with a star-spangled extravaganza at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his signature 1963 civil rights speech.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama hugs a girl during a visit to Sasha Bruce House, an emergency shelter for teens in Washington, January 19, 2009.[Xinhua/Reuters]

The president-elect, who built a political narrative around his work as a community organizer in Chicago, began his day at Walter Reed Army Medical Center visiting wounded troops along with Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King Jr.

He then traveled to the Sasha Bruce House, a Northeast Washington shelter for at-risk adolescents from troubled families.