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By Sue Guinn Legg
Johnson City Press Staff Writer
slegg@johnsoncitypress.com
Milligan College’s students, faculty and staff took a day off from their scholarly pursuits on Tuesday in lieu of a day of volunteer service patterned after the “servant leadership” of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
From fun and games and literacy projects carried out at more than a half-dozen local after school programs to sorting antibiotics for tsunami victims a half a world away, an estimated 500 Milligan volunteers shut the books and put their back into the college’s second annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.
“It’s not just that we’re out of class but that we’re out in the community helping people,” sophomore April Martin said as she and a group of friends helped unload a tractor trailer load of diabetes medication donated to the King Benevolent Fund of Bristol by a Midwestern pharmaceutical maker.
“Compared to class this is more productive and more relaxing,” Freshman Megan Gable said as she sorted antibiotics at the other end of the King Benevolent Fund distribution center destined for tsunami victims in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“We’re helping other people here. In class we’re just helping ourselves,” said Gable, whose afternoon humanities class was canceled for a hands-on lesson in humanitarianism.
“Its been a wonderful day,” said Milligan history and humanities professor Craig Farmer, who after spending much of his youth in Southern Asia and spending time in many of the countries impacted by the tsunamis, was grateful for the opportunity to help.
“Having visited many of those areas, it was shocking to wake up (Dec. 26) and here about it …. The only way to deal with it is to share the gifts God has given us,” he said.
The nearly two dozen projects held “in honor and remembrance the life and legacy” of the late civil rights leader included:
• Sorting and boxing food for Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee.
• Scapbooking photographs and creating bulletin boards at the Methodist camp on Buffalo Mountain.
• Visitations, program presentations and recreational activities for the residents of Appalachian Christian Village and Pine Oaks Assisted Living Community.
• Inventory and archive duty at Camp Wildwood, the Girl Scouts’ camp on Woodland Drive.
• An early spring cleaning at The Melting Pot, Good Samaritan Ministries’ free breakfast and lunch program for needy downtown residents.
• Evening meal preparation and service at the Salvation Army dining hall on Ashe Street.
• Maintenance work at The Rock, Coalitions for Kids’ community center on Watauga Road.
• And a variety of recreational and educational activities for students attending after school programs in Johnson City and Elizabethton.
“This day of service is part of Milligan’s ongoing dedication to serving others,” Beth Anderson, director of Milligan’s Institute for Servant Leadership, said. “Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and dreams reflect Milligan’s mission of servant leadership and it is appropriate for us to dedicate ourselves to serving those around us.”
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