Hundreds in Friends' Central Community Honor the Legacy of Dr. King on MLK Day of Service 2016

Each year, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Friends’ Central School participates in a variety of on- and off-campus service projects. This year, close to 300 students, parents, and alumni/ae participated in MLK Day, making it a significant and productive “Day On” for the Friends’ Central community.

This year, thanks to efforts of Lower School families, more than 100 care packages of children’s supplies were packed and donated to Families Forward Philadelphia, a nonprofit organization that gives counseling, protection, shelter, travel assistance, and housing to stranded travelers, newcomers, and homeless families. Donations of diapers, formula, strollers, and clothes were collected in the weeks leading up to and on MLK Day. While older Lower Schoolers were putting together care packages, youngest hands were working creatively by decorating t-shirts, onesies, and socks for babies and making original artwork for families in the Families Forward program to brighten and decorate their rooms.

More than 100 Middle School students and parents heard from guest speaker, Whitney Johnson, Founder/CEO of Generation Ubuntu, a nonprofit dedicated to providing care and support for children living with HIV in South Africa. After her remarks, Middle School student and parent volunteers assembled 116 toiletry packs of soap, toothbrushes, shampoo and conditioner, and deodorant, donated by many Friends’ Central families, and bagged 500 bagged lunches, all of which will support the Bethesda Project, a shelter that supports chronically homeless men and women that FCS has been partnering with for many years.

For the second consecutive year, Upper School students had the opportunity to participate in a workshop at nearby Har Zion Temple. Led by the Anti-Defamation League, this year’s workshop was entitled, “ADL Honors the Legacy of Dr. King: Building the Beloved Community.” Students then spent all afternoon in a variety of volunteer activities, including sorting and organizing an array of donated items to be delivered to area charities including, Cradles to Crayons, Impact Thrift, Narberth Food Bank, Philly Reads, and the Career Wardrobe. Other students participated in the day’s service projects by writing letters to American or Israeli soldiers, filling snack bags for senior citizens, sewing knitted squares into quilts for hospitals, and sorting pillow cases for “Cases for Smiles.”

Though the activities that our students participated in varied, the impact of these service projects did not. Each boy or girl who donated his or her time to help another who might be in need added to the legacy of Doctor King, who encouraged all of us to look inside ourselves and help to make the world a more equitable, hopeful, and fair place for all. Taking a “Day On” to remember Doctor King and to remind ourselves of the purpose of service is a Friends’ Central tradition, and this year’s MLK Day was a huge success once again!