Press Release
University of North Carolina Asheville
With no classes held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, some 170 UNC Asheville students, staff and faculty volunteers will contribute a day of service to community organizations on Monday, Jan. 19.
“We are excited that the number of students and staff who have chosen to make this ‘a day on’ instead of a day off has skyrocketed in the last two years,” said Selena Hilemon, director of service-leaning at UNC Asheville’s Key Center for Community Citizenship and Service-Learning. “It is impossible for us to create positive change in the world if we are unaware of the work that is required to create healthy communities.”
Some UNC Asheville volunteers will help in the health care sector, preparing arts and crafts projects for children in the hospital with Arts for Life Asheville, or working at The Rathbun House, a hospitality house near Mission Hospitals for patients and caregivers founded by Adelaide Daniels Worth Key, for whom UNC Asheville’s Key Center for Community Citizenship and Service-Learning is named.
Additional UNC Asheville community service will include work at the Boys and Girls Club of Buncombe County and the Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity ReStore. UNC Asheville students volunteering with Asheville Greenworks will help beautify the route for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march, while others working with the YWCA of Asheville will help staff the march in a variety of ways and help in the Y’s community garden.
For more information about Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at UNC Asheville, contact Selena Hilemon, director of service-learning at UNC Asheville’s Key Center for Community Citizenship and Service-Learning, at 828.258.7721 or keycenter.unca.edu.
UNC Asheville’s annual celebration of the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. also includes a free public talk by documentary filmmaker Byron Hurt at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan 22, in Lipinsky Auditorium, and a variety of programs and activities for students.
For more information about Martin Luther King Jr. Week at UNC Asheville, contact Dahlia Hylton, director of the Intercultural Center and Multicultural Student Programs, at 828.251.6577 or msp.unca.edu.
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