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."
"Here is a man that dedicated himself to creating a better world for everybody, trying to create a world full of equality and to recognize everybody's common humanity," said Dubinksy, who came back from his vacation from Myrtle Beach a day early just to be there. "That's one of the whole purposes of a land-grant university and our motto at the university is 'that I may serve.' Here we are doing good work for people who do good work. The child care centers and head start centers across the New River Valley operate on a shoestring, they need as much support as they can get, and this is one way we can help give back to people who have given all their time."
Corrine Barton, site director of the Valley Interfaith Child Care Center, was definitely grateful for their help.
"It's been crazy, busy, but it's been fantastic," Barton said. "They're doing projects that we've wanted done, but we haven't had the resources or the time to do them so it's been very helpful."
This childcare center provides their services to low-income working families who otherwise couldn't afford to pay for their children to attend a daycare.
"It's why I do what I do, because I want to help families be able to support themselves and provide for their children and that's what they need," Barton said. "I want to be here to provide a safe and loving environment where these children can learn while their parents are at work, and that their parents can go to work and not worry about their children. I just really appreciate the program that these students are participating in."
"For me, I really believe in our motto at school, 'that I may serve,' and I felt that I hadn't been doing that enough," Okyere said. "Basically, I had been focusing on my economics -- a lot -- and I thought, my mom works in a daycare, they always need help with these things, so I pretty much figured that this is something that I should be doing."
"In a nutshell, one of the things I hope students will come to understand is that college and Virginia Tech in particular, is not a way station," Dubinsky said. "You're not here for four years on your way to somewhere else, you are somewhere, and you are a member of a larger community, and while you're in a community the best thing you can to is be an active member of that community and give back, learn who the people are, find out what the world around you is involved in and cares and find a way to participate."