On Monday, January 18, Penn State Wilkes-Barre hosted the five northeast regional Penn State campuses for the second annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day "ON" Community Service Event.
According to Jackie Warnick-Piatt, Penn State Wilkes-Barre Student Activities Coordinator, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day "ON" Event was started last year at Penn State Hazleton. It is a multi-campus community service event that will be alternately hosted at one of the six Penn State campuses participating each year: Berks, Hazleton, Lehigh Valley, Schuylkill, Wilkes-Barre, and Worthington Scranton.
This year, students traveled to the Wilkes-Barre campus and spent the day volunteering around the Wyoming Valley. From sorting canned goods and boxes of food at the Back Mountain Food Pantry, to cleaning animal cages at the Luzerne County SPCA, more than 50 students, faculty, and staff spent their day serving others. Other organizations where volunteers spent time on Monday include Catholic Youth Center (Wilkes-Barre), Hoyt Library, Jewish Community Center, Lands at Hillside Farms, and Meadows Manor.
According to www.mlkday.gov , Congress initiated the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service in 1994, transforming "the federal holiday into a national day of community service grounded in [Martin Luther King, Jr.'s] teachings of nonviolence and social justice," and making the holiday "a day ON, where people of all ages and backgrounds improve lives, bridge social barriers, and move our nation closer to the 'Beloved Community' that Dr. King envisioned."
For more information, please contact Jackie Warnick-Piatt, Penn State Wilkes-Barre Student Activities Coordinator, at 570-675-9284 or [email protected].
