Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service

William Penn High School — Pride of the Community Academy

Students from the ACTS Program and community volunteers from a number of churches, the Hindu Society of Greater Harrisburg and several prominent lawyers gathered at 8:30 am to begin the cleaning up and painting of the William Penn High School. The project was focused on painting and cleaning the 8 bathrooms and the back of the auditorium, used frequently to host gathering of the students and serves the community as well. A hallway covered with graffiti proved no match to the volunteers who tacked this project with great enthusiasm. All the bathrooms were thoroughly cleaned and two were completed repainted.

The adult volunteers were mightily impressed by William Penn school students who came in for 9 full hours - longer than a school day - making their off a day on. Though in recent years the Harrisburg schools have had more than their share of difficulties, the young student made a powerful case by their actions for he need for the community to pull together, at theme repeated in the annual Martin Luther King Day essay contest with more than 800 contestants.

At about 3:30 p.m. all began to regroup back at the high school auditorium for the “workshop” component of the day. Unfortunately, some of the volunteers didn’t make it back to the school. Those who were there were treated to a wonderful program of inspiration and education. We began with an invocation and then a rousing rendition of The Star Spangled Banner given by Rev. Vanessa Owens.

Bishop Phillip C. Johnson spoke first to connect our program of service with the Baptist Preacher, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Quoting from Genesis 1:1-6 Rev. Johnson drew upon the words of God “Let there be …” to connect to the words of Dr. King when he proclaimed, “I have a dream”. When God created the world there was a formless chaos then God spoke to the darkness. Rev. Johnson challenged the audience to let our minds and hearts have the courage to imagine a world that doesn.t exist in the same way that Dr. King dreamed of a world that we could only imagine at that time. Even though great strides have been made towards racial justice, there are still great gaps in terms of true social justice, economic justice, and creating a world of non-violence for all people. He also quoted Rev. Jesse Jackson who said: “If your mind can conceive it, and your heart can believe it, then you can achieve it”.

Next the audience was treated to a performance of the Soul Steppers. These young people who are middle school and high school students used drums and rhythmic dancing to raise the spirit and warm us all on a cold day.

Rev. Bryan Hewitt, youth minister of Faith, Hope and Love Ministries, quoted extensively from a book by Dr. Miles Monroe. He stressed that we all have abilities that we really must share. The essence of his message was, “having ability is good, keeping it is bad!”. We joined in saying affirmations such as: “My birth is evidence that my purpose is necessary” or “Leaders are simply people who dare to express themselves and become themselves fully”.

Finally, we heard from Rev. Jim Flynn, President of the American Family Coalition. Rev. Flynn gave a five-point formula for success that nicely summarized all we had been hearing. His suggestions were:

• be observant,
• see from God’s viewpoint,
• follow your conscience,
• be responsible, and
• practice servant leadership.

This last point means that we must always be willing to serve and to “walk the talk”.

After the program all adjourned to the cafeteria where we enjoyed a great catered buffet. During the meal there were awards presented to the young artists who had drawn portraits of Dr. Martin Luther King. All in all the day was a great success and none of it would have been possible without the tireless energy and effort of Councilwoman Vera White and Ms. Brenda Spencer.

By Sally Sayre

Add comment January 17th, 2005