Collegiate Times

Sophomore international studies major Gertrude Okyere scurried down the corridors of Newman Hall, carrying with her just a flier and a pen. She approached the door of a friend – and later the doors of many other friends – and confidently knocked on the door. When greeted by a familiar face, she asked, "Have you heard about this?"

It was an information sheet about an upcoming community service endeavor, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Childcare Facelift service project, where students come together to help local childcare facilities by cleaning and carrying out various other chores to honor King's service on the day of his namesake.

"I explained to them that basically you give the daycare a facelift, you might sweep, you might paint, you might clean ... Pretty much everybody that I asked came because I knew people would want to do it," Okyere said yesterday as she folded children's clothes with her Newman Hall friends at the Valley Interfaith Child Care Center at the Good Shepherd Church of the Brethren on Heather Drive. "People are willing to help, you just have to find the project and the right time frame.

"When I saw the list of things we had to do, like putting up shelves and such -- and I'm not really good with that, I'm more like organizing things or sweeping up or wiping things down -- but I was more excited because I knew ... there was somebody in there who knows how to sand, somebody in there who knew how to do a mural even if I didn't know how to do it. So we have a really good mix of people who are willing to do different things."

The project was run by VT Engage and the newly founded Center for Student Engagement and Community Partnerships, which, according to director Jim Dubinsky, "incorporated two existing entities: the VT Engage and the service learning entity." He said that their job is to institutionalize the concept of engagement in all facets of student life through volunteer projects and service learning courses.

The center applied for and received a $1,000 grant in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day from the Corporation for National and Community Service to fund the facelifts.

"[Helping daycare centers] seemed like an idea that might energize students ... We were able to get 200 students to come and work at about 18 different sites," Dubinsky said. "That's a pretty phenomenal turn-out. We only anticipated a hundred and we got double that."

"It feels like a good way to start the semester," said Amanda Davis, graduate assistant for the center. "I'm a graduate student (working on my master's in public administration), my life gets pretty hectic and pretty busy after classes start so I think it's great that the first day of the semester we don't have anything else to worry about, just to be here."

When asked about the relevance of volunteering on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, freshman HNFE major and Newman Hall president Monique Johnson replied, "I think it's even better that way. It's all about coming together and working together. We're all friends, we're all from different places. We're all just coming together for a greater good ... I can't think of anything better to do with my time."

1 | 2 | Next »