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September 12, 2009

Honoring through service

GCSU observance kicks off volunteer effort

Jonathan Jackson

Students and community volunteers paused Friday to remember the events of Sept. 11 and some steps to honor the eighth anniversary of terrorist attacks in the United States with a commitment to serve.

Those in attendance offered remembrances of Sept. 11 among hundreds of American flags placed as part of the 9/11 Never Forget project by the GCSU College Republicans.

During the ceremony, Mandy Peacock spoke of her fiancee, who was deployed with the 48th Brigade earlier this year.

“I wanted to honor his service,” Peacock said of fiancee Marc Davis. “9-11 is the reason he re-enlisted in the Army. He is very passionate about serving.”

Peacock said Davis would be in total support of marking Sept. 11 with a time of servitude.

Marking Sept. 11, students kicked off the Martin Luther King Jr. Semester of Service running from Sept. 11, 2009, to Jan. 19, 2010.

“We’re hoping for 500 volunteers,” organizer and GIVE Center director Kendall Stiles said. “We’re focusing on the whole event running through Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is a day off, day on.”

Students who sign up for the service are asked to perform at least nine hours, 11 minutes of volunteer work, donate at least $9.11 to the charity or charities of the volunteer’s choice or donate at least 10 canned goods for Sodexho’s Cans Across America/Fill Up the Bus and/or Totes for Tots. During the month of September, the GIVE Center will also ship eight care packages to troops overseas.

The service project is sponsored by the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity and the GIVE Center.

Each month leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the college will hold special events to mark the drive for volunteerism.

In October the program will focus on empowering individuals with the clothesline project regarding domestic violence prevention and No-Boundaries week that will raise awareness of living with a disability.

In November, the program will focus on fighting hunger through various food drives. In December, the program will focus on giving through the planning of the Martin Luther King Day of Service and a Kwanzaa food drive.

In January, the program will focus on social justice with a project where texts of King’s speeches will cover a bus seat and will then be displayed on front campus. Also in January, the program will celebrate King’s life and legacy with service projects across Baldwin County and the annual march. The observance will conclude with the third annual Flagg Social Justice Awards that will honor those leaving a legacy in the community.

For more information, call the GIVE Center at (478) 445-5700.

“We are hoping for 500 volunteers,” Stiles said.

The GIVE Center will track volunteer hours and efforts throughout the course of the project.

“I keep going back to a quote of Dr. King’s, ‘Everybody is great, everyone can serve,’” Stiles said.

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