On Monday, January 18, Penn State Wilkes-Barre will host 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 Penn State Wilkes-Barre expects approximately 75 to 100 faculty, staff, and student volunteers to join in the event, which will include music, lecture, and volunteering at a variety of community service agencies, including the Luzerne County SPCA, the Lands at Hillside Farms, Catholic Youth Center (Wilkes-Barre), and other non-profit organizations.
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].