Cottey College MLK Day Service Events

Cottey College will observe the 2020 MLK Day of Service beginning at 1 p.m. on Monday, January 20, with a kick-off event for students, faculty, and staff in the Cottey Chapel. Students will share inspirational thoughts about service to others.

Students will spend the afternoon engaging in seven service-learning projects led by faculty and staff. Students will select the project in which they wish to participate and attend an hour-long workshop to develop an awareness of the project’s impact. The rest of the afternoon will be devoted to service.

Three of the projects will engage in service off-campus. One group will visit Morningside of Nevada to engage in cross-generational sharing with the residents to foster mutual understanding, tolerance, and respect. Students That Open Minds to Possibilities (STOMP), a program for at-risk children that cooperates with the Nevada Housing Authority will lead a program for kindergarten through fifth grade students at Fairgrounds Estates. A third group of students will travel to Loretta’s Attic to help organize donations following an on-campus session that will raise student awareness of the importance of re-use as a sustainability strategy.

The four on-campus service projects include a discussion of campus sustainability initiatives followed by service in one of the campus gardens and a lesson on what can be planted in January. A writing session will show students how writing can effect real, meaningful change in the world. Students will choose an issue important to them and write a letter to an audience that could enact change on that issue. Another group will gather on campus in an effort to connect with people who live alone and face isolation because of their location, disability, or language barrier by creating and mailing Valentine’s Day cards. In a workshop on electronic waste, students will learn about what is inside old or broken cell phones, laptops, and tablets and discover what happens to them when they are no longer useful to the owner.

The “day on, not a day off” event will conclude with a Reflection Dinner in Raney Dining Room at 5 p.m. with representatives from each project reporting on their service learning action project.