MLK Day '07
Thank God for Molina and Roth, doing whatever it is they do to make things happen.
The city of Jackson has a history of doing community service on MLK Day. Everyone has off work and school, and the city chooses to actually celebrate by honoring his memory with dedicated work rather than sleeping in and whatever else. In recent years the tradition has sadly waned, but Molina and Roth worked with the powers that be to help bring it back, and I tagged along. There was a decent group of Jim Hill and St. Andrew's students who showed up, but my Murrah crowd slightly outnumbered them I'm proud to say, and between all of our students I'd estimate we made up almost half the total crowd. We went to a place called Genesis Food Bank, which is a huge warehouse that distributes food and water supplies all over the world to needy organizations. The guy who runs it - regrettably, I've forgotten his name already- provided a nice history for us at the beginning of the day. It's located in "The Zone," a twelve-block radius in South/West Jackson notorious for its prostitution and crime rate. The building also suffered even as it worked during Katrina, and we spent the day sorting boxes of food and water. Some the mice and insects had gotten to, and the rest of the good stuff we saved. My students, it was clear, thoroughly enjoyed themselves and really got caught up in it. Some of the more sheltered kids were shocked that we were saving really old, rusty cans of anything edible and lining the curb with them, because the warehouse couldn't officially distribute such foodstuffs but the locals of the neighborhood would snatch it all up by the next day. Afterwards, everyone involved headed back to a local church to share their feelings about the day - most of my students did stand up and speak in front of the crowd, obviously affected by the novelty and relevance of the day's work.
I've posted the photos on Facebook. Look for the biggest bag of Coco Puffs ever: http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065626&l=51f7a&id=5601686
The city of Jackson has a history of doing community service on MLK Day. Everyone has off work and school, and the city chooses to actually celebrate by honoring his memory with dedicated work rather than sleeping in and whatever else. In recent years the tradition has sadly waned, but Molina and Roth worked with the powers that be to help bring it back, and I tagged along. There was a decent group of Jim Hill and St. Andrew's students who showed up, but my Murrah crowd slightly outnumbered them I'm proud to say, and between all of our students I'd estimate we made up almost half the total crowd. We went to a place called Genesis Food Bank, which is a huge warehouse that distributes food and water supplies all over the world to needy organizations. The guy who runs it - regrettably, I've forgotten his name already- provided a nice history for us at the beginning of the day. It's located in "The Zone," a twelve-block radius in South/West Jackson notorious for its prostitution and crime rate. The building also suffered even as it worked during Katrina, and we spent the day sorting boxes of food and water. Some the mice and insects had gotten to, and the rest of the good stuff we saved. My students, it was clear, thoroughly enjoyed themselves and really got caught up in it. Some of the more sheltered kids were shocked that we were saving really old, rusty cans of anything edible and lining the curb with them, because the warehouse couldn't officially distribute such foodstuffs but the locals of the neighborhood would snatch it all up by the next day. Afterwards, everyone involved headed back to a local church to share their feelings about the day - most of my students did stand up and speak in front of the crowd, obviously affected by the novelty and relevance of the day's work.
I've posted the photos on Facebook. Look for the biggest bag of Coco Puffs ever: http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065626&l=51f7a&id=5601686
posted by David Jones | 21:38
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