ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – Winthrop University students fanned out in Rock Hill on Jan. 16 during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday so they could help make the community a better place.
More than 350 students arrived for the Day of Serviceat the DiGiorgio Campus Center. Before disembarking for assigned service projects, volunteers enjoyed a performance by Winthrop’s Vision of Prayze Gospel Choir.
They also received words of encouragement from President Dan Mahony who brought his family – his wife, Laura, daughter Elena, and her friends - to volunteer alongside the students. The final tally of volunteer hours from the Day of Service was 1,558 hours.
“Our students realized how fun service would be,” said Chanel Little, an organizer and an AmeriCorps VISTA staff member. “ It’s so simple to donate a couple of hours of your time for others.”
Here is what they accomplished:
• Warming Project: From donated hygiene items, students assembled 150 hygiene packs and packaged fleece
scarves for local warming centers.
• Rock Hill Community Education Garden: Students constructed eight hoop houses which will extend the life cycle of the garden
beds.
• Rock Hill Feeding Project: At the downtown area churches, students prepared and served spaghetti meals that
resulted in 261 individuals receiving a hot meal.
• Veterans: Through a coordinated campus/community wide food drive, approximately 100 lbs. of
food was collected for the local VA food pantry.
• Pilgrims’ Inn: Students cleaned and disinfected the children’s playground equipment, organized the
food pantry, and delivered hot meals, from the Feeding Project, to 30 residents.
• Urban Ministry: In an assembly style fashion, students prepared 1,600 meals for a local organization
that serves 800 meals a day.
• Renew Our Community: Students organized the food pantry and clothing closet.
Each site consisted of an educational component so that students could learn about
the organizations and people that they were serving, and how they can continue to
serve beyond MLK Day.
At their service sites, participants sent photos of their groups in action via cell
phones to include in a slideshow that was shown at the DiGiorgio Campus Center during the wrap-up.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at 803/323-2404 or e-mail longshawj@winthrop.edu.
