Zara Inspires Local Students During Wittenberg's Seventh Annual MLK Day of Service

2015 Feb 16

Inspired by the vision of the Springfield Promise Neighborhood to form a local collaborative, neighborhood-based effort to ensure children are school-ready by kindergarten and college and work-ready by graduation, Wittenberg students completed service projects with elementary school students during the university's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Jan. 31.

Wittenberg students, including leaders from a variety of campus organizations and Zara Tickner, spent about four hours with students from Lincoln and Perrin Woods Elementary School, celebrating the legacy of the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

"The goal of this event is to bring the Wittenberg community together with the Springfield community, especially the elementary students here, and to really use Wittenberg's motto to pass on our light," said Alyssa Hughes, class of 2015, a community service coordinator who helped organize the event.

The event included separate stations in the community. The students broke off into groups and rotated between the stations hourly.

At the First Baptist Church, students used brown paper bags to create model oak trees to symbolize the strength of courage. Students wrote words on the leaves to define the characteristics of courage.

At the nearby Rocking Horse Center, students used the biographies of famous civil rights activists to create "trading cards" and also worked together to create a student Bill of Rights, exercising their understanding of the rights that King and his contemporaries fought for in the 1960s.

Students also had the opportunity to visit Springfield's historic Gammon House, which was originally a part of the Underground Railroad prior to the Civil War. Students had a chance to tour through the house and its cellar, learning about the lives of the fugitive slaves who once sought refuge in it.

The Day of Service was organized by Wittenberg's Community Service Program and the Hagen Center for Civic and Urban Engagement.

The event is part of the National Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, which is observed the third Monday in January each year. It is a national holiday, created to encourage individuals to view Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a "day on, not a day off."

The Corporation for National and Community Service, which coordinates the service day at the national level, views the event as something that "empowers individuals, strengthens communities, bridges barriers, addresses social problems and moves us closer to Dr. King's vision of 'Beloved Community'." Wittenberg's Community Service Program plans the event after the holiday since the university offers the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Convocation and other events to remember King on the actual holiday.

Wittenberg's efforts in the area of community engagement have been 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.