MLK Day Brings Opportunities for Service and Sharing

January 13, 2010

On Monday the main campus community will observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day with words of inspiration, recordings from history, and opportunities do volunteer work in the local community. Community is one of the core values embraced and encouraged at Saint Leo University.

In keeping with that value, MLK Day has been named one of the two Community Service Days held each academic year at the main campus. The normal Monday class schedule is canceled to permit students, faculty, and staff to attend special events in the morning, and then join one of many volunteer work-projects open to them at local agencies in the afternoon.

A new event is being added to this year’s morning offerings. The Social Sciences Department of the School of Arts and Sciences will host an open house from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Crawford Hall, one of the classroom buildings. Historic film footage of Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights movement events will air continuously in Room 8. In the next classroom, Room 7, students, faculty, staff, and visiting community residents will be able to record on video their own reflections of Dr. King or the era, or talk about the impact the era has had on them, even if they were not yet born at the time. Speakers will not have to operate the taping equipment. They need only identify themselves clearly at the beginning of the comments. The Social Sciences Department will save the tape to air at the 2011 campus MLK Day open house. Questions about the open house can be directed in advance of the event to: Heather Parker, chair of the Social Sciences Department at heather.parker02@saintleo.edu or Penny Freeman, coordinator for the School of Arts and Sciences at (352) 588-8288.

At 10:30 a.m., in the Student Community Center Boardrooms, author Jeffrey Odell Korgen will speak to the university community on Catholic social ministries, solidarity, and service learning. Some of his books include: Solidarity Will Transform the World: Stories of Hope from Catholic Relief Services and My Lord and My God!: Engaging Catholics in Social Ministry. He also writes for periodicals on topics such as youth ministry and community organizing.

The Martin Luther King Day celebration will be followed by a community lunch  and volunteer-work opportunities at any one of a variety of local sites from 1 to 4 p.m. Volunteer workers are asked to sign up for a specific site by  5 p.m., Thursday, January 14, by calling Mary Ann Neuhofer at (352) 588-8331 or e-mailing her at mary.ann.neuhofer@saintleo.edu.  

Further questions can be directed to Paige Ramsey-Hamacher at (352) 588-8489 or paige.ramsey.hamacher@saintleo.edu.