A Real Day of Service
By Albert B. Kelly
This past week, we observed the Martin Luther King Jr.
holiday. Like any holiday, it’s observed differently in communities across the
land. Here in Bridgeton, the MLK holiday is a day of service in honor of a man
who was all about serving others during his life. As you may recall, our day of
service was focused on having youth, clergy and other volunteers do some
serious cleaning at the churches that serve as our Code Blue Warming centers
and I have to say it was a huge success.
For starters, we had 300 participants from all corners of
our community. It is this type of a turnout and civic mindedness that inspires
me to refer to our city as “the great City of Bridgeton” whenever I’m
representing this community in other parts of the state. After speaking with my
counterparts in other cities, I’m fairly certain that our local day of service
was one of the largest in New Jersey.
With this in mind, I owe a big thanks to all those who came
out and gave of their time and effort. Initially, we planned on starting with
one warming center but with so many people participating, we dispatched
volunteers to St. Andrews Church, Bethany Grace Community Church, even touching
a third location before the day was done.
While a whole contingent of volunteers was hard work
scrubbing and cleaning the spaces used for our Code Blue warming centers, we
had the youngest of our student-volunteers making over 200 peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches for distribution among those in need. Perhaps most heartening,
several parents brought their children so that they could see and experience
service learning for themselves. The youngest child present was 6 years old and
was fully engaged.
The effort saw volunteers and representatives from over 10
different houses of worship scattered throughout our immediate area and the
effort received strong support from the Bridgeton Christian Ministers
Association representing still other congregations. An added bonus to the
Bridgeton MLK Day of Service came in the form of a visit from four high ranking
members of the New Jersey State Police who
were present to help clean the various Code Blue sites here in
Bridgeton. This was in line with
Governor Murphy’s emphasis on MLK Service Learning Sites throughout New Jersey
and I am extremely grateful to the State Police for their service.
The most encouraging thing for me was that on this day;
every race, religion, ethnicity, gender, and orientation took part in the service
activities. While the impetus was the Martin Luther King Jr holiday, the focus
was on joining together in service and fellowship regardless of skin color or
nationality. Unfortunately, such days are rare, but it’s the currency we need
most.
Once the working part of the day ended, we took opportunity
to break bread together over lunch. We also took the opportunity to listen to
selected speeches by Dr. King and hear reflections from several local leaders.
This was no small part of the day because I’ve found that it’s easy for those
of a certain age to assume that everyone knows about Martin Luther King Jr. and
what he stood for, and that’s simply not the case.
Whether because of their relative youth or because they were
raised in a different culture with different heroes, many young people and
perhaps a few not-so-young-people, have little to no knowledge of MLK and why
his message matters 50 years after his assassination.
Bridgeton’s MLK Day of Service last week was indeed a day of
service, but it was also a day of genuine fellowship and a concrete way to make
real the concept of loving and respecting our community, which is really about love
and respect for other people- the ones we pass on the street and live next to
in our respective neighborhoods.
As I said, it’s moments like these that inspire me to refer
to our city as “the great City of Bridgeton”. As wonderful as some of our
buildings may be and as splendid as our park is and as valuable as our
businesses are- it’s the people who are the most inspirational and that was on
full display this past Monday. To all those who took part in Bridgeton’s MLK
Day of Service, I extend my heartfelt thanks to you for all you do.