Cassie Gibbs News Editor
Destiny Hosmer Staff Writer
Troy University students honored Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy last week by participating in different events and service opportunities throughout the city.
Different service events included: prepping and delivering meals with Campus Kitchens, playing games with senior citizens at Noble Manor and helping with the food bank at the Salvation Army, among others.
Darunda Wilkins, a sophomore business management major from Montgomery, celebrated the week of service by helping at the local Boys and Girls club. Wilkins said that helping those younger than she was a great opportunity to have.
“I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Pike County Boys and Girls Club in Troy on Saturday, Jan. 24, during the MLK service week,” Wilkins said. “I saw this as an opportunity to give back to the community. At the Boys and Girls Club, other volunteers and I had the chance to clean the bathrooms, mop the gym, organize books and other various activities. The Boys and Girls Club recently bought a school, so it was great to help with cleaning that as well.
“The youth are the future, so I will do anything I can to help them. I especially enjoyed volunteering because I remember my time in the Boys and Girls Club. I loved seeing people from the outside come and help as well. During that day of service, I gained new friends that I
probably would’ve never met otherwise. We have common interests and enjoy giving back. I would do it all over again to give back in hopes of a better future.”
Quenton Martin, a junior social sciences major from Tuscaloosa and president of Troy’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, participated in the Death of a Generation event that was held on Thursday, Jan. 22.
“The event was a memorial to kind of highlight the recent lives lost and the recent injustices in black America, such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Gardner, but it was more so used as a generational rally cry to give the student body a say in how we can change the world,” Martin said. “We’re still a generation that can provide a lot of good.”
Martin said having the event during the MLK service week helped the event to be a success.
“Being that it was on Dr. King’s week, and with the recent release of (the movie) ‘Selma,’ it all came together to make the service a very powerful service,” Martin said.
Jonathan Cellon, coordinator of service learning and engagement, said that the turnout for the events was great and that the week of service was a success.
“Everything went well,” Cellon said. “I’m thankful to the students who showed up and helped make a difference in our community.”
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