While other area schools were closed Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Pathfinder School sent their kids out to memorialize Rev. King through community service.
“We make it a day of service in his honor,” said Taryn Carew, Pathfinder’s advancement director. “It plays into a value of our school to teach students that they have the power to participate in the world around them.”
That participation was preceded by a month of age-appropriate learning about the Civil Rights Movement, Rev. King and other civil rights activists.
For instance, kindergarteners learned the values of kindness and what it means to be an activist. Middle schoolers studied the works of King and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
To put their learning into action, middle schoolers divided up and headed to Commongrounds in Traverse City, a community-centered, real-estate co-op, and to Reigning Liberty Ranch, which offers therapeutic riding programs for veterans and others.
At Commongrounds, students helped serve meals during a free community lunch provided by NoBo restaurant located in Commongrounds, while eight of their fellow middle schoolers helped socialize and exercise three mini horses and a mini donkey at Reigning Liberty Ranch.
The ranch’s Executive Director Becki Bigelow welcomed the help from the kids, but had to change up the plan at the last minute because of the cold snap and gave them an indoor volunteer activity.
“Fortunately, we have a heated indoor arena,” she said. “And I assigned them a task that I give our regular volunteers, to socialize the minis to people by grooming and playing with them.”
Pathfinder middle schoolers also partnered with Olsen’s Food Stores to organize 150 cans of food they had collected during their month of learning about the Civil Rights Movement.
At Cherryland Humane Society, a group of eight middle schoolers went to work mopping floors and washing windows in the lobby, conference room and in the cat kennel area.
“We are so grateful for the students that came to our shelter to volunteer from Pathfinder,” said Naomi Lawson-Pobuda communications and marketing manager at Cherryland Humane Society. “They were up for helping wherever was needed, did lots of cleaning jobs and with a smile.”
After, the kids were able to spend time with the shelter’s adoptable cats and Billie, the office cat.
Second and third graders helped prepare meal kits at Project Feed the Kids, a volunteer organization out of J&S Hamburger on S. Airport Rd. in Traverse City that provides 3,000 free meals a week to people who need help.
In the meantime, fourth and fifth graders built eight birdhouses at the Grand Traverse Conservation District’s Boardman River Nature Center. The bird houses will be installed in the spring at Hickory Meadows, a 116-acre preserve located west of Traverse by Hickory Hills Ski area.
The folks at Orchard Creek Assisted Living in Elmwood Township were entertained for the second year by kindergarteners through story and songs.
“The kids were amazing,” said Valerie Pitney, activity coordinator for Orchard Creek Assisted Living. “They were so sweet and not shy about interacting with the residents and they just loved it.”
At the Leelanau Christian Neighbors (LCN) in Lake Leelanau, nine first graders brought donations they had organized from a school-wide baby-item drive. They then got a tour of the facility to learn how food and baby items are donated, collected and organized.
“We need to teach them young that there are people outside of their circle that are in need of help,” said Mary Stanton, LCN executive director.
After the tour, the first-graders volunteered to pack book bags for kids and bags with diapers and wipes for babies.
When asked what she liked about learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. and her experience at Leelanau Christian Neighbors, first grader Luna Ludwig said “Helping babies.”
In November, 1963, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill making the third Monday in January a federal holiday honoring Rev. King. It is designated as a national day of service in remembrance of the civil rights icon’s legacy of working to end segregation and racism through nonviolence. As a result of his work, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Every year on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, federal, state and local governments close, and people across the country are encouraged to take part in a day of service to improve their communities. Pathfinder kids answered the call and volunteered at a total of eight local organizations that largely depend on volunteers or could use a helping hand.
“We looked forward to this special day of leaning and giving back as we came together to honor Dr. King’s vision for a just and compassionate society,” Carew said.
