For the sixth year in a row, Wittenberg University students spent the day with elementary school children from the Springfield Promise Neighborhood to talk about the power of hope during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Jan. 30.
Inspired by the mission of the Promise Neighborhood, approximately 15 Wittenberg students spent nearly four hours volunteering with children from Lincoln Elementary School and celebrating the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
"Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is normally one of the most impactful days of service we have because of the historical and national connection,” said Sarah White, class of 2018 and community service coordinator.
The event included separate stations at the Springfield Center for the Arts at Wittenberg University where 25 elementary students, supported by four local AmeriCorps VISTA members and seven Wittenberg community service coordinators, connected.
The students broke off into groups and rotated among the stations. First, they watched a video about King. They then reflected on their own experiences with hardship and reviewed future goals by writing a letter to U.S. Rep.resentative John Lewis about King's legacy.
At another station, students considered traits that make them unique, which they then wrote about in the center of a butterfly shape, the symbol of hope. After cutting out the shape, children pressed pieces of colored tissue paper between contact paper to form a sun-catcher collage.
At the final station, children played a giant memory matching game with facts about King's life. They then split into teams and used their bodies to form words such as "inspire," "serve," "love," "justice" and "peace."
"They enjoyed themselves as they thought about Martin Luther King Jr. and service,” White said. “And that's really the goal.”
The Day of Service was organized by Wittenberg's Community Service Program and the Hagen Center for Civic & Urban Engagement.
The event is part of the National Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, a federal holiday set aside to honor the memory of King through service.
Wittenberg's Community Service Program intentionally schedules this event after the holiday so the campus and local community can attend the university’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Convocation. This year's speaker was Dr. Joyce Ladner, civil rights activist and sociologist.
Wittenberg's efforts in the area of community engagement were recognized nationally for five consecutive years, 2006-2010, and again in 2013 and 2014, on the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts.
