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MFS News

January 19, 2009

Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service: Monday, January 19, 10 a.m. to noon

1/3/09 letter sent home to school families

View photos from past MLK, Jr.
Days of Service:

2008

2007

IMPORTANT DEADLINE
To DONATE ITEMS: All donated items must be at the school by 1 p.m. Wednesday,
January 14.
Requested donations by grade level:

This is a FAMILY service event.
Lower School students must be accompanied by a parent to participate.

Nine Years Of Remembering Dr. King Through Worship and Service

For the ninth consecutive year, Moorestown Friends School students, faculty and parents will perform community service work together to observe the national Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, which this year is Monday, January 19.

The schedule
Volunteers of all ages will gather at 10 a.m. on Jan. 19 at the school. They will assemble in the Moorestown Friends Meeting House for a Quaker Meeting for Worship in honor of Dr. King, coordinated by student members of the Upper School MLK, Jr. Club and Upper School Service Committee, before beginning work on the projects in the Dining Hall/Commons and other campus locations.

The projects
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day projects will be conducted at activity centers on campus. Each activity has student and parent coordinators. The activities are:

Activity 1

Birthday Party Bags: Create Birthday Party bags for people who would not otherwise have a birthday celebration at the Devereux Foundation Group Homes for mentally challenged residents. Bags (to be decorated that day) contain cake mix, frosting, candles, decorations, paper plates, napkins, hats, and a small gift. Location: Dining Hall.

Activity 2

Holiday boxes: We fill storage boxes with easy crafts for a variety of holidays for the folks at Devereux. Each Dining Hall station will have one theme: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Winter, Valentines Day, Independence Day. We make both boxes of student-made decorations and kits of supplies and directions for the Devereux residents to make for themselves (good occupational therapy). One task will be sorting paper strips for them to make their own chains for different holidays. (It is not helpful if we make the chains for them.) Location: Dining Hall

Activity 3

Health Kits: Students organize and fill 2.5-gallon plastic zip bags with toiletries for homeless people who come to New Visions in Camden to shower and get a hot meal. Bags are sorted for children to fill with toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, shampoo, hand cream, washcloth, comb, and socks. Disposable razor, deoderant and shaving cream are added for adult kits. We need 2.5-gallon zip lock bags! Location: Dining Hall

Activity 4

Computer Generated Coloring Books: 4th Grade Service Club members and two Upper School student leaders are organizing the activity to copy and collate pages and bind pages into coloring books and attach crayons for the Birthday Bags for Devereux and New Visions. Location: Computer Lab and Library.

Activity 5

Knitting and crocheting scarves: This has become a popular quieter activity. Experienced needle workers are needed. We will provide some instruction. Participants create scarves for a women’s shelter. Bring size #13 needles and chunky yarn or size #8 needles and worsted. Large crochet hooks are advised. Location: Stokes Hall.

Activity 6

Project Linus Blankets: Meet in the Moriuchi Room to decorate a muslin square with fabric markers that will be arranged and sewn into quilts.  The blankets will be given to hospitalized children.

Activity 7

Sewing soft stuffed toys: We have a pattern for very simple soft toys to sew and a couple of machines available for experienced sewers. We welcome more people to embroider eyes, “turn” the bodies, stuff and hand sew shut. If you can bring a sewing machine, please do so. These are loved at Samaritan Hospice! Location: MacColl Room.

Activity 8

Fleece Scarves: Lauren Beetle, an MFS alumna and members of her firm will organize the making and decoration of fleece scarves inthe Staff Room. This new activity is an example of life-long service in action.

Activity 9

Wooden Toy Kits: Meet Middle School Kids for Peace in the woodshop to cut pieces for simple wooden toys. Parts are sanded and bagged into kits with instructions provided by Devereux homes, Samaritan Hospice and New Visions. Lower School students must have a parent present! The woodshop activity will require tickets (given out at the door) for 25 students and parents to attend one of 3 sessions of 25 minutes.  This is due to space limitations and safety issues.  Location: Woodshop

The school will accept donations for all the projects through 1 p.m. on January 14.

Community Service at MFS
This is the ninth year that MFS has scheduled community service activities as part of the MLK Jr., Day observance. In previous years, over 200 workers have prepared dozens of casseroles, pans of brownies and decorated cookies, and hundreds of health kits, birthday boxes and birthday cards.

In addition, some MFS families elect to spend the day on community service work organized through their own houses of worship and other organizations.

Community service is a longstanding part of the curriculum at MFS. It has been an MFS graduation requirement since 1989 that students complete 30 hours of community service, and that requirement has since been raised to 50 hours. Acting upon one's beliefs is consistent with the Quaker foundation of Moorestown Friends School.

Community service is taught through every level of instruction, beginning with three-year-olds, who bring in canned goods for holiday meals, through the Upper School, which has an active ongoing program of community service including tutoring students, serving meals to the homeless and providing companionship for senior citizens.

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