School district gears up for MLK day of service
Hoping to honor the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., hundreds of Perkiomen Valley School District students will serve others as part of the district’s fifth annual Day of Service event to be held on Monday, Jan. 16.
Instead of taking a day off for the federal holiday of Martin Luther King Day, students and staff members will make it a “day on” by volunteering. Some students will serve at Perkiomen Valley High School in the cafeteria between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., while others will travel to locations across the community.
At the high school, approximately 300 elementary school students and 80 middle school students will rotate through different service stations and participate in the following activities:
• Recycling plastic bags to create blankets for Angels in Motion, a non-profit organization that provides assistance for homeless addicts in Philadelphia.
• Decorating pillowcases for One Home At A Time, an organization that provides beds and bedding materials to families in need.
• Coloring and laminating place mats for Meals on Wheels.
• Decorating disposable coffee cups with sleeves and filling them with hot chocolate, sweets and other items to be donated to senior citizen centers and other loca- tions.
• Decorating water bottles with labels that have inspirational sayings on them and donating them to a school in need in time for Pennsylvania Systemof School Assessment testing.
• Creating cat toys for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
• Creating fleece blankets for One Home At A Time, an organization that donates blankets to children in need.
• Recycling jeans and cutting them into patterns for Sole Hope, an organization that creates shoes from the denim patterns for children in Uganda.
• Creating drawstring cinch bags and filling them with hygiene items for the Chester County Migrant Ministry.
Perkiomen Valley High School students will assist their younger peers with these activities. In addition, dozens more high school students spread out across the area to run a clothing drive at Trappe Fire Company for Cradles to Crayons, help out at the Perkiomen Valley Library in Schwenksville, collect and organize food at the Daily Bread Food Pantry, clean up at the Collegeville Fire Company, and help out at Main Line Animal Rescue and Greenfield Senior Living.
This is the fifth year Perkiomen Valley School District has organized a Day of Service. Each year, the event has grown to include more, and this year is no exception. Thanks to a grant from the Perkiomen Valley School District Foundation, the district has been able to include stations for middle school students.
The district is thankful for the donations and support of the following businesses and organizations:
•Perk io men Valley School District Foundation
• Skippack Elementary Home and School Association
• Kurtz Brothers
• Wegmans
• Student Transportation of America
• Perkiomen Valley Youth Basketball
• The Gaboriault family
•Re in os Design Print Mail “We are grateful for these donors, who contributed funds or materials needed for our Day of Service. It is gratifying to see the Day of Service growing and the interest that our community has in serving others,” said Mrs. Jessica Lester, Manager of School and Community Engagement. “The volunteer slots we make available always fill up quickly, and this year was no exception. We are fortunate to be able to provide an opportunity to families who want to honor Dr. King’s legacy in a meaningful way, and look forward to havemany young people helping us on this national day of service. It is our hope that by participating in this event, our students will be inspired and seek ways to serve our community well into the future.”