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Campus Review
January 31, 2014
Page 16
AmeriCorps Members Make a Difference
During Give Kids the World Alternative Break Trip
“A Day On Not a Day Off”…
The MLK Holiday in Action for Clayton State Students
by LaShanda Hardin
On Monday, Jan. 20, a total of 85 Clayton
State University students gave a visible
demonstration of Clayton State’s support-
ive community by serving the community
and honoring the legacy of Martin Luther
King, Jr., by volunteering at the Truly
Living Well Center for Natural Urban
Agriculture. Indeed, it was a “dream made
real” in action.
Participants began the day in the Clayton
State Student Activities Center with a
presentation on the history of the King
holiday and an overview of Truly Living
Well. Students were then transported to
the service project where they had the
opportunity to work on a variety of proj-
ects including repairing garden beds,
spreading mulch, planting trees, construc-
tion, painting and landscaping.
Their work that morning assisted Truly
Living Well in their mission to grow bet-
ter communities by connecting people
with the land through education, training,
and demonstration of economic success in
natural urban agriculture. Since 2006,
Truly Living Well has been providing the
local Atlanta community with organically
grown vegetables and fruit direct from
their certified natural Atlanta farm.
After the service project, students then
joined teams from corporations, churches,
schools and other non-profit organizations
in the Annual MLK March & Rally
through downtown Atlanta.
Shanice Walker, a Clayton State sopho-
more from Statesboro, Ga., and Taya
Duchatellier, a senior from Brooklyn,
N.Y., both expressed what an honor it was
to have the opportunity to volunteer at a
location only two blocks from his birth
home.
“It the least we could do for Dr. King to
honor his legacy,” says Duchatellier.
The 2014 MLK Day of Service was part
of a calendar of events scheduled to cele-
brate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Other events included the
King’s Sunday Supper, “A Dream
Deferred” dialogue on recent social injus-
tices and A Day with Dr. King Cultural
Immersion field trip to give students the
opportunity to explore significant land-
marks associated with Dr. King and the
Civil Rights movement.
For additional information about any of
the events, please contact the Department
of Campus Life at (678) 466-LIFE (5433).
For additional photos from the service
project and the march, go to the Clayton
State Department of Campus Life
Facebook
page;
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set
=a.690436854310215.1073741831.12217
8364469403&type=1.
The ultimate goal of the students and staff
members who make up Clayton State’s
AmeriCorps program is that their service,
their support for the community outside of
Clayton State, can make a difference.
That was certainly the case during
AmeriCorps’ recent Alternative Winter
Break trip to Give Kids the World in
Orlando, Fla. Sixteen Clayton State stu-
dents, along with Jennifer Welch,
AmeriCorps program coordinator and Dr.
Samuel Maddox, associate professor of
Psychology, volunteered at Give Kids the
World, a 70-acre nonprofit storybook
resort where children with life-threatening
illnesses and their families are treated to a
week-long, cost-free fantasy vacation,
from Dec. 9 to Dec. 13.
While the reward of service is often in the
performance of the service, AmeriCorps
received a special reward via a post on
Clayton State’s official Facebook page
from Bruce Nagy, of Kamloops, B.C.,
Canada, whose family was staying at Give
Kids the World. In part, Nagy’s Facebook
post said…
“I cannot say enough about how wonder-
ful everyone treated us all during our
entire stay! Sorry, I am not much of a
writer, but, right now I am holding back
some tears, trying to express how much
AmeriCorps, cont’d., p. 19