Washington Area Women’s Foundation’s intern reflects on how participating in a service project on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day changed her outlook on volunteering.
January 17th was my first time doing volunteer work on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and it was a day that changed my whole perspective on MLK and volunteer work. When my mentor at The Women’s Foundation suggested that we do volunteer work on our day off on Monday, my first thought was Yes, this is perfect! I get to take care of some of the community service hours I need for school! But as I read more about the project I’d be working on, I realized that this would be about more than just writing off some hours.
We selected a project that I learned about through Urban Alliance, the program that placed me in my internship at The Women’s Foundation. The project we worked on was at Meyer Elementary School, the new home for the students of the Takoma Education Center. The Takoma Ed Center is a D.C. public school that was badly damaged in a fire on December 22nd. On MLK day, organizations and a huge amount of people gathered at the school’s temporary home to help make it feel more welcoming to their students. Volunteers were needed to help with art work in the classrooms, murals in the hallways and beautification of the grounds. I thought that would be an excellent idea for my mentor and I to do together. When I got to the location, I was taken aback by how many people I saw volunteering to help this school out.
My mentor and I got assigned to organize and put together bags and boxes of school art supplies that had been donated by local residents and companies. I had a blast doing that. I never knew it would be that fun. When the boxes and bags keep on building up, I couldn’t believe my eyes – there were so many items donated to the school. It was incredible! After everything was packed, different people had to take the bags or boxes to an assigned room in the building so the supplies could be arranged and sorted among the teachers in the grade level.
I got assigned 3rd grade. When I got to the room I sat the bags of supplies down on the teacher’s desk. As I was walking out the door, I stopped and turned back around and just thought about how great this was and I imagined the glow and the happiness on the kids’ faces the next morning. I smiled because all I could think about was how I helped put that glow or that smile on a teacher’s or child’s face. As soon as that project was finished I didn’t want to stop and go home; I felt so good about that project I wanted to do more.
So I did more. I helped paint a mural for an art class with my Urban Alliance Program Coordinator and a fellow intern. Helping paint that mural just felt like I completed a major goal of mine and volunteering wasn’t even on my goal list, that is how good I felt. It also helped me realize this must be how Martin Luther King felt when he completed his goal or helped someone out. That’s when I decided that every year I would do something for MLK Day and do a different volunteer activity to help not just me feel good, but my community as well. I, Ladaesha Jackson, strongly recommend that everybody do volunteer work, not just on MLK Day, but when someone or something needs help in your community. Get out and do something and you can make a difference, too! Did you do a service project on MLK Day?
Ladaesha Jackson is an intern at Washington Area Women’s Foundation.
Photo credit: Urban Alliance; Ladaesha Jackson (left) and Mariah Craven at Meyer Elementary School.