Hundreds of Radnor Township School District students, parents and staff members joined together to celebrate the life and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the fourth annual district-wide Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service on Monday, January 20 at Radnor High School.
All schools were closed in observance of the holiday, but student, staff and parent volunteers offered their free time to participate in a variety of charitable projects.
This year's event featured hands-on service projects for volunteers of all ages, donation collections, a bake sale, a 50/50 raffle, hoops for helping, and more. Proceeds were donated to the Radnor A Better Chance (ABC) program.
Service projects included:
- Creating "Blizzard Bags" filled with non-perishable food items for the Wayne Church Food Pantry;
- Assembling activity kits for children in the Bryn Mawr Hospital Pediatric Unit;
- Making care packages for the Rosemont Care & Rehabilitation Center and Wayne Senior Center;
- Writing thank you letters for Operation Gratitude;
- Assembling and decorating lunch bags and building hygiene kits for the Life Center of Eastern Delaware County;
- Decorating kid pack bags for Cradles to Crayons;
- Packing essential items into reusable tote bags for Valley Youth House;
- Creating bookmarks and attaching to donated books for Reach Out and Read (ROAR) Philadelphia;
- Organizing mother and baby kids for Cityteam Chester.
Donations were also collected for the following organizations:
- Diapers (any size) for Cityteam Chester;
- New (in package) socks and underwear for children for Cradles to Crayons;
- Towels (new or used/clean), canned pet food, paper towels, bleach, laundry detergent, and contractor bags for Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society (Philly PAWS);
- Non-perishable food items (boxed, canned or dry goods) for Wayne Church Food Pantry.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service was chaired by parent volunteer Lora Collett and sponsored by the Radnor Township School District parent-teacher organizations.