On Monday, Jan. 20 around 9 a.m., the Leadership and Service Learning Department at Longwood University held the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Challenge with a total of 91 students and faculty who attended and helped serve the Farmville community.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day came to Longwood once again by means of the MLK Challenge. A total of seven color groups went around the community and gave different organizations a helping hand. Each color group had at least 13 people and one advisor to help out and keep it in order.
The MLK Challenge is the “kick-off” of the Martin Luther King, Jr. week-long celebration. Throughout the week, there will be different events to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
The MLK Challenge is about giving back to the community. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a vision about the community; he emphasized how important both leadership and service are.
The theme of this MLK challenge celebration is about “Bridging the Gap” from civil rights to human rights.
“When talking about human rights and civil rights in general, you talk about [what] your community can do and how important change [in] a community is,” said Jennifer Fraley, associate director of Leadership and Service Learning, who organized the first day of the celebration. “Especially here at Longwood, we emphasize how important being a citizen leader is because it’s such an important part of our institution: making citizen leaders.”
Justin Reid, associate director of the Moton Museum in Farmville, arrived to the MLK Challenge talking about how important this day is and how it’s great to see students give back to the faculty.
He, too, was touched by Longwood University and hopes that with more people volunteering and helping the community, they’ll want to give more back to the institution.
Some of the volunteer organizations that the color groups went to were: Holliday Lake State Park in Appomattox, Clean Virginia Waterways in Rice, FACES Food Pantry, Habitat for Humanity Restore, Longwood Center for Visual Arts, New Horizons Resources Community Agency and Stepping Stones Preschool.
Fraley was extremely proud of the outcome. She said, “It’s a great number for this small of a community. It’s a great outcome, especially since it’s a long weekend and everyone wants to go home and see their family, which is well deserved.”
She continued, “But we have a lot of people that are very concerned and very committed to community service and giving back and helping serve in that portion of things. We encourage people to take the day on rather than taking the day off.”
The MLK challenge began at 10 a.m. on Monday and concluded at 1:30 p.m. Although there were some volunteers who did not show up, the girls’ soccer team came and helped volunteer, making a total of 91 people.
Afterwards, the volunteers arrived at the Moton Museum located on Griffin Boulevard across from the old Kroger Shopping Center.
At the end of the show-and- tell, Longwood University’s very own President W. Taylor Reveley IV gave a closing speech of how important getting involved within the community is and he commemorated the students and faculty who came out during their day off to help
Justin Reid speaks to the crowd of volunteers about the importance of giving back to the community. [Bottom Left] Volunteers pull nails for the Habitat for Humanity Restore. [Bottom Middle and Right] Volunteers decorate for the Valentine's Day event at the LCVA.
