For the last seven or eight years, Christine Jackson has spent Martin Luther King Jr. Day — traditionally a day off from work for many around the country — out in the community serving as a volunteer.
Whether helping set up bookshelves at Franklin Academy or, most recently, handing out school supplies to area teachers, Jackson said it’s become something of a tradition for her.
“Our teachers, especially the teachers in our community, they give so much to our kids I think it’s just out of the goodness of everyone’s heart that they should … give back to those teachers who just sacrifice so many days day after day,” Jackson said. “… Even a small gesture goes a long way.
“My dad always taught me to pay it forward,” she later added.
This year, Jackson — along with dozens of other people around the Golden Triangle — will spend the holiday Monday on another volunteer project in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Anna Jones, who for the last 25 years has organized a march in West Point, said the day of service should serve as a reminder to everyone to give back to their communities.
“It’s not a black thing or a white thing, because Dr. King was for all of us,” she said. “This year’s theme (for the program in West Point) is ‘It should not be a day off, but a day on.’ In other words, do something. Volunteer. Do anything on that day, and the rest of the year. Get more organized. Get more involved in activities. … Just anything.”
Each of the three major municipalities in the Golden Triangle hold events — an 8 a.m. breakfast at Trotter Convention Center in downtown Columbus, a 9 a.m. march in West Point from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to Mary Holmes College Gymnasium, and a Unity Breakfast at the The Mill at MSU and dedication of Civil Rights activists at Unity Park in Starkville.
The breakfast in Columbus is free and open to the public and will feature as guest speaker District Attorney Scott Colom, who said he plans to speak about King’s opinions — which he pointed out where extremely unpopular at the time — and use the day as a reminder of King’s and other Americans’ sacrifices for their communities and their principles.
“It’s celebrating one of our American heroes and is kind of a reminder of — just like Abe Lincoln — the sacrifice that some Americans have made to uphold those American ideas,” Colom said.
Following the breakfast, those interested in volunteering can join Golden Triangle Regional Hub (formerly Volunteer Columbus) with United Way of Lowndes County delivering school supplies to teachers from Lowndes and Noxubee counties. Hub director Errolyn Gray said there will actually be two days of service — Saturday will be a “prep day” in which volunteers will load schools supplies into boxes for teachers, and on Monday, they will deliver those boxes to teachers who drive by the Trotter Convention Center to pick them up.
“As of now, we have 140 teachers (planning to pick up supplies), but that is still growing,” Gray said.
Even more activities abound in Starkville, said Alexis Wallace, assistant director for student leadership and community engagement at Mississippi State University, which works with the Maroon Volunteer Center to coordinate volunteers for area nonprofits.
The breakfast begins at 8 a.m. at The Mill at MSU Conference Center on Russell Street with a message from keynote speaker Donald Shaffer, MSU’s director for African-American studies. Following the breakfast, volunteers will split up to work with different organizations, including clean-up and restoration with Starkville’s parks department or working with kids at the Boys and Girls Club or area churches, Wallace said.
Like Jones, Wallace said the day of service is about taking a day to do something for the community, rather than just taking a holiday.
“(It’s about) taking the opportunity to step back from our regular normal pace of things and just being able to engage with one another and look to your community members and thinking about not only what you need … but also what the next person needs,” she said. “… I think it’s just reiterating how much we need to advocate for one another and the needs of our community, and also recognize the very real assets that exist as well and celebrating that.”
In West Point, city and county leaders will end the parade with a 9:45 a.m. program at Mary Holmes College where Mississippi NAACP president Rev. Robert Jones will speak. Anna Jones said while the city hasn’t organized a specific volunteering event, many marchers break off to work with their individual churches and other organizations on community service projects.
She added the parade, which has been a West Point staple since 1989, will commence unless weather becomes extremely severe.
“Some communities, when they don’t have too much of participation, they will come to ours,” Anna said. “We’ve had Columbus come to us. We have some from as far as Tupelo who come to West Point. We march whether it’s snowing or raining. …. We have umbrellas, we march and when we get to the site we’re wet, but it’s worth it.”
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