ROCHDALE VILLAGE COMMUNITY CENTER (Jamaica, NY)

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend of Service

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After two successful collaborations last Spring and Summer with having some of her “kids” prepare sandwich packages to distribute to the homeless and hungry, Julia Shaw, the Director of Rochdale’s Community Center (Jamaica, NY), reached out to us about “doing something” in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the weekend that celebrates his birthday; this time with adults. We settled on a date of Friday; January 12, and she created a flyer asking for volunteers to come down that evening.

I saw the flyer on the “bulletin board” of the buildings and in the weekly e-mail blast that goes out to Rochdale’s residents notifying them of community events. Nevertheless, I did not want to get my hopes up too high, only to experience a letdown if there was little response. I reached out to Ms. Shaw about a week or so before showtime to ask if she had gotten any “bites.” Much to my surprise, she told me more than 40 people registered to come down and help. In addition, there was a 10-member track team, Supreme Striders, who wanted to participate. My joy soon turned to concern, as this response was much more than we needed; particularly since no one (I assume) had any prior experience in doing this. Calls and e-mails continued to come in from those seeking to be part of our MLK Weekend of Service event.

That Friday evening, sure enough, the community came out. We had over 50 volunteers, and that turned out to be a good thing. It was a good thing because they stepped up, took hold of a potentially chaotic situation, put their hearts into it, and made it run like a well-oiled machine. The team prepped 224 sandwich packages in under an hour, and they were distributed throughout Queens the following morning.