Students Serve on MLK Day of Service

By Katie Ward

Over 860 students who opted out of staying inside during the below-freezing weather on their Monday off were up early to serve in the D.C. community.

These students took part in the 14th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Monday, January 21st, serving by doing anything from cleaning up public nature spaces to making .

Emmjolee Mendozza Waters, Associate Director of Campus Ministry and Community Service, welcomed students to the event in the Pryzbyla Center Great Rooms and thanked everyone for showing up on the cold day. She mentioned the dramatic change in participation from the first MLK Day of Service in 2006, for which 25 students signed up to serve, to this year’s 1,067 students.

She credited the work of Campus Ministry’s outreach and the Athletic Department’s 100% participation of teams. University President John Garvey mentioned the recognition the Athletic Department has received for the past three years from the National Association of Collegiate Director of Athletics, this year for their service on MLK Day.

The government shutdown affected many of the service sites, Waters mentioned during her introduction, causing many of them to cancel their participation in the event and others to require more students due to lack of usual government workers at the sites. Waters also tried to avoid sending students to outdoor sites due to the day’s freezing weather, with a low of 12 degrees and a 20mph wind.

“To try to place over 1,000 participants, we work with a number of organizations throughout the city,” Waters said. “But because of our large numbers, we need partners that can accommodate large groups- so often they are outside. A couple hundred spots cancel on us due to weather and government shutdown. We had to do a lot of re-organizing and maximizing on all of our sites.”

Robert Malesky, B.A. 1973, who was a senior producer at NPR and in 2010 wrote a photographic history about the university, also spoke to the students before they went out to serve. Malesky had first visited the campus in high school when he took a summer journalism course, and remembered Martin Luther King Jr.’s impact on the campus community in the mid-1960’s. Malesky talked about how the campus and Brookland community reacted the day in 1968 that King was assassinated, and about how it affected American culture.

“He died, but another kind of movement was born. It’s like going to the back of the bus. We didn’t grow any new arms or legs when we stopped moving to the back— we had a change of mind.

“So a man dies on a balcony— but new life springs from the blood that waters the soil,” Malesky said. “You are that new life, and in Dr. King’s name, go out today and water the earth with kindness and justice and service.”

The hundreds of students were bused to various locations including Habitat for Humanity ReStores, Carroll Manor, Washington Hebrew Congregation, Anacostia River Keeper, Rock Creek Conservancy, the Franciscan Monastery Garden Guild, the Ronald McDonald House, Little Sisters of the Poor, and Friends of Noyes Park.

Two Habitat for Humanity groups, the men’s baseball team, and the women’s lacrosse team went to Washington Hebrew and participated in making tuna casseroles, goodie bags, and blankets, as well as carrying and organizing clothes for different donation organizations.

“Even though it was a freezing cold day, it was a great experience as a team to all be together for a great day of service,” said sophomore women’s lacrosse player Bridget Beck. “Although this was not our first time doing service, it was the first time that the whole all Athletic department participated in MLK Day.”

“I am grateful for everyone’s positive attitude and flexibility,” Waters said of the campus-wide event. “I think, overall, considering the hurdles, the day was a huge success!”