More Than 600 Volunteers Spend MLK Day at 34 Sites Around Porter Falls

On Monday, 612 students, staff and faculty took part in the university’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Volunteers worked at 34 sites around Porter Falls and logged 2,050 hours in PorterConnect, the platform that records community engagement hours. It was the largest turnout in the event’s eleven years, despite a morning temperature of −6°F.

The day started with a 7:30 a.m. breakfast and orientation in Founders Union. Volunteers then left in teams of six to twenty, most of them by Porter Loop shuttle or on foot. Some of the projects:

• Porter County food bank warehouse: 140 volunteers in three shifts sorted and packed 9,400 pounds of donated food, about two weeks of the warehouse’s usual volunteer output.
• Porter Falls Public Library: 38 volunteers sorted roughly 11,000 donated books for the spring sale and re-shelved the children’s room after its new carpet went in.
• Porter County Home Repair Collaborative: construction management and engineering technology students weatherized seven homes for older residents, installing door sweeps, window film and two new storm doors.
• Senior center and two care homes: card games, letter writing and a bingo tournament that ran 40 minutes over schedule.
• On campus: 60 volunteers stocked the campus food pantry and assembled 400 winter kits of hats, gloves and hand warmers for the city’s warming center.

“Our rule is that every site has to be one that asked for help, doing work they actually need done. Nobody gets sent somewhere to stand around for a photo. That’s why the sites keep asking us back.”

— Leticia Haugen, Director of the Center for Community Engagement

The day ended with an evening program in the Founders Union ballroom. Students read from Dr. King’s speeches, and a panel of three Porter Falls residents, a retired teacher, a pastor and a city council member, talked about the city’s own civil-rights history, including a 1966 fair-housing ordinance that passed the council by one vote.

The center says about a third of first-time Day of Service volunteers sign up for a recurring placement within the semester. Weekly openings are posted in PorterConnect. For advice on choosing a commitment you can actually keep, see community service in Porter Falls or the volunteer on campus page.

Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu