Highland Park's Day of Service Draws Hundreds

Hundreds of students, parents, volunteers and communities members - not just from Highland Park, but all over the North Shore, Chicago area and some as far as Colorado - spent their Monday holiday with the true spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in mind at the sixth annual Day of Service hosted by the Highland Park Recreational Center.

“This grows every year, and brings the community together,” said event coordinator Cheryl Levi, who noted participation was at or more than 1,5000 this year - well up from the 150 who showed up at the inaugural event in 2010.

Levi explained that the 20-30 tables set up at one end of the gymnasium had representatives from various agencies - North Shore health clinics, veteran organizations, and PTO-run organizations, to name a few - who had different projects taking place, all benefiting an organization or good cause.

Every school in District 112 had a table and the Park District offered up the space. 

“We had a lot of issues covered this year,” Levi said. “We had the environment, animal organizations, veterans and children’s causes. All with the objective to get people to live the dream of Dr. King, which is to serve.”

One local organization on hand was Recorders of Hope, a not-for-profit with a mission to “bring the joy of music across the globe.” It’s a project begun by Highland Park High School alum Natalie Sereda to recycle recorders no longer being used by Highland Park students and send them to children in Cambodia to promote music education.

During the Day of Service event, children would write little notes of encouragement and attach them to the recorders that will soon be delivered to less-fortunate countries overseas.

“It’s a great way to encourage the kids over there and for the kids here to connect with them,” said Sereda, who plays five musical instruments and attends New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

The Day of Service event drew several volunteers, Levi said. Some were offering to get things ready for the event while others were helping out the community through the various projects held at the tables.

“We had made 120 volunteer shirts and ran out of them quite awhile ago,” she said.

While some were making their yearly appearance at the event, the Rice family - from nearby in Lake County - wanted to do something unique on their day off and found this event to be quite popular.

“We wanted to give back to the community, and this presented us the best opportunity to do that,” said the mother of the family while helping bring in supplies for the Moraine Food Bank.

“It’s great seeing the parents and kids get involved,” she said, adding in that the event offered a nice entertainment component as well when the Jesse White Tumblers dazzled an energetic crowd with their always-impressive routine.

“They are all awesome,” Mrs. Rice said.