More than 100 Clemson University students chose to spend the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday serving their local communities by volunteering with area nonprofit organizations as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service.
MLK Day is a federal holiday also designated as a National Day of Service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities. The only other official national day of service in the U.S., as designated by the government, is September 11 National Day of Service (9/11 Day).
At Clemson, the MLK Day of Service is coordinated by the Center for Student Leadership and Engagement, which includes the Harvey and Lucinda Gantt Center in celebration of the late civil rights leader’s legacy and commitment to community-building. Since its inception in 1994, the MLK Day of Service has become a beloved Clemson tradition. This year, Clemson student participants served with four community partners in Clemson, Pendleton and Easley.
“This is a special day for Clemson and the country as we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose whole life was about serving others,” said Vice President of Student Affairs Doug Hallenbeck, during his welcome and send-off speech addressing the assembled student volunteers at the start of the day.
“You all chose to get off the sidelines of life and get into the game and be here to help and serve others. It takes a special person to do that, and you all are special,” he said “I appreciate you taking time out of your life to spend in service to others. One thing we know, whether it’s at Clemson or any other space, is that we’re better together.”
Community cleanup
The students split into four groups and were taken by CATbus to their assigned places. The largest group of 48 students was driven to The Dream Center in Easley. The nonprofit has been has been assisting Upstate individuals in need since May 2012 with services, facilities and programs, including emergency assistance for those in crisis. The Dream Center’s residential program, The Opportunity Village, combines a comprehensive one-year program with a village of 21 tiny houses and 10 transitional houses. The contingent from Clemson’s job for the day was to clean the vacated tiny houses and prepare them for the next residents.
The students were welcomed to The Dream Center by its director of community engagement, Melissa Vess, who said she couldn’t be happier to see such a large group of Tigers show up for her organization and the community.
“It’s a blessing from above,” she said.
“We have two gentlemen who work here that handle all the facilities, not only the 21 tiny homes and ten transitional homes on this campus, but four resale stores and our Santa shop building,” she said. “When a group like this comes in, they can do as much in three hours as our two guys can in three weeks.”
Mike Shipley, board president of the Clemson Little Theatre where a group of 15 students spent the day sprucing up and organizing the historic theater located in downtown Pendleton, echoed Vess’s sentiment.
“It would have taken us weeks to get done what they did today,” he explained. “It surprised me, actually. I didn’t realize we could get the list done so fast, so I said, ‘Well, we’ve got this other thing we need done,’ and they’d knock that out too! It was great.”
Outreach and assistance
Meanwhile, another group of students set up a tabling event outside the Starbucks in the Douthit Hills Community Hub where they spent the day signing people up for the national bone marrow registry. All it takes to get on the registry is a couple swabs to the inner cheek, and college-aged persons are the ideal age to successfully donate, if they match.
Clemson has a meaningful history with the nonprofit via the story of Lachlan Tannery, the son of two Tiger alums who lost his battle with a rare form of leukemia at 19 months and sparked a movement to save lives. At least a dozen students and staff members have matched and donated bone marrow, literally saving the lives of strangers near and far.
The final group of 30 students went to Abel Baptist Church in Clemson, where they lent their time to the Cemetery Hill Project, contributing to ongoing beautification and restoration work there. The historic property includes three cemeteries: the African American Burial Ground, A.P. Calhoun Family Plot and Woodland Cemetery, spanning the 18th to the 21st centuries.
Sharing and reflection
After community service work was completed Monday, volunteers gathered in the Hendrix Center with local partners and University leaders, including interim president Bob Jones.
Rebecca Harkless, director of student leadership and engagement, gave the closing speech in which she stressed that the Day of Service is about engaging with one another as much as is about helping those in need.
“Today is . . . a moment to reflect, to listen, to be in relationship with one another,” Harkless told the group.
“This morning, many of you engaged in service across our local community, and while service is an important part of honoring Dr. King’s legacy, Dr. King also reminded us that service without reflection, without justice and without relationship is incomplete. He spoke often about the idea of beloved community, a community grounded in love, justice, dignity and shared responsibility. A community where no one is disposable, where conflict is addressed honestly and where care extends beyond charity into accountability. So, this is an invitation to reflect on what beloved community means — not just in theory, but in practice, and our lived experiences within the Clemson Family.”
