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Students and staff to honor MLK by participating in national day of service
The Advocate
Mt. Hood Community College will be closed Monday but a group of students, faculty and staff will honor Martin Luther King Jr. by participating in a national day of service.
MHCC students have been signing up for the “We are the dream” Day of Service 2010 and Dawn Forrester, a counselor in the Career Planning and Resource Center, said, “We have 50 students participating in the event.”
Forrester said the participants, among other things, will be “working primarily in the areas of North and Northeast Portland improving buildings and providing community enrichment.”
“There is no school,” Forrester said. “Why not look to MLK’s spirit to be involved in your community?”
The MLK Day of Service event will begin Monday when MHCC participants are transported by bus at 7:45 a.m. from MHCC to Concordia University. “There will be a collective of 11 colleges and universities in attendance,” said Forrester.
A rally will be held at 9 a.m. that will include speakers Mayor Sam Adams and Pastor Mark Strong honoring King. The King Elementary School Choir will perform. King’s “I have a dream” speech, given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 during the march for civil rights, will be recited.
Emily Gilliland, executive director for Campus Compact, said, “The rally gives students the opportunity to come together, talk about Martin Luther King’s vision for community and how we play into that.”
After the rally, participants will be shuttled to work on service projects from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. throughout North and Northeast Portland.
“It will be a full day. We are taking care of transportation to and from MHCC, and providing lunch,” Forrester said.
Some of the opportunities will include cleaning up neighborhoods, invasive plant removal, painting, restoration to historic buildings and assisting a local church to assemble food boxes.
This is the first year MHCC has participated in the event. Forrester said, “Next year there will be a bigger push on campus to get people involved.” She said she will work diligently to get the word out earlier. “This year I requested one school bus for transportation. Hopefully next year I can request three.”
Gilliland, who reaches out to organizations, colleges, and universities to promote the event, said, “Dr. King had a wonderful vision for collaboration and community involvement that we hope to follow with this event. It’s a great way to honor his vision for community.”
On the MHCC campus, a disagreement has existed whether the faculty contract should include MLK Day as the one official winter holiday or if Presidents Day should be the day off.
MLK Day has been the holiday observed for more than a decade, but Presidents Day was selected in the most recent contract negotiations.
As it turned out, there will be no classes this year on MLK Day but that is because employees gave up four workdays to help balance the budget — and Jan. 18 is one of those days.
Larry Dawkins, speech instructor, said he had been irritated that the college might not have MLK Day off.
“You have to celebrate people rather than positions in government,” he said.
King had a “huge” impact on Dawkins life, the instructor said.
“He’s the reason I have this job. He’s the reason my son is a computer engineer. He’s even the reason a lot of the students at this college can look forward to careers in certain fields,” Dawkins said.
As a voter registration captain for the NAACP, Dawkins said he met a lot of people who were influential to civil rights, including shaking the hand of King himself.
Dawkins will offer a slide show and presentation Feb. 1 about the origins of Black History Month in honor of King and others in American history who fought for civil rights
“He gave us a recipe for approaching problem resolution,” Dawkins said. “He taught us we can face problems and instead of picking up a gun we can look to non-violence for solutions to problems.”
There are many ways to honor King on the national day of service. Many websites are dedicated to providing opportunities to those who would like to reach out.
Forrester said it’s important for people to be involved in their community and “if it’s only for one day that’s great. More than that, it’s fabulous,” she said.
According to Forrester, Monday’s event is no longer taking participants as they have reached capacity but there are many ways students can still find opportunities at their neighborhood non-profit organizations.
The service learning link on the MHCC website gives students opportunities to enhance their education while serving in the community.
Victory Hall, service learning peer mentor, said being approved to volunteer can sometimes be an involved process but added that “if students ask for a project like painting, most times they will have something.”
Hall is first-year student in the mental health and human services program.
Hall said agencies such as SnoCap, The Salvation Army, and YWCA are always looking for volunteers.
However, Gilliland encourages students to take the opportunity to get involved on MLK Day.
“This is the opportunity to learn from the community,” she said. “You can work closely with faculty to do community projects, and learn leadership skills. Everybody benefits.”
Hall said that if students are interested in finding an opportunity for service on MLK Day, they could go to americorps.gov.
There are several service projects happening Saturday, Sunday, and Monday from planting trees to cleaning up neighborhoods.
“The important thing to remember when you decide to do service is to be open,” she said. “You can’t call up an organization and ask for volunteer opportunities but say no to feeding the homeless or no to painting.”
The national day of service is President Obama’s “call to service” for Americans to work together to extend a helping hand.
“It’s not just a day to pause and reflect — it’s a day to act,” the president said in January 2009.
Obama asked that people turn their MLK Day efforts into an ongoing commitment to enrich the lives of others in their communities, their cities and their country.
In answer, opportunities are being provided in all 50 states for people to rebuild communities across the nation.
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