Volunteers to use day for service

By Dave Stephens
Assistant Campus Editor

Many Purdue students, faculty and staff will be spending Martin Luther King Jr. Day serving their community.

Affirming the Dream IV: A Day of Service, is a chance for members of the Purdue community to help share the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. by volunteering at different community agencies. Volunteers will work with the agencies from approximately 9 a.m. to noon and then be served a luncheon at Tarkington Residence Hall.

"Volunteers have come from all over campus," said Dorothy Simpson-Taylor, director of the diversity resource office, the organization that is sponsoring the event.

"Volunteers have been assigned to over 25 different community agencies," Simpson-Taylor said, "the number of volunteers is about 300, the largest ever."

"Volunteers will be working at places like the veterans home, the international center and at different retirement homes," said Rachelle Edwards, a graduate student in the School of Liberal Arts and the project coordinator for the day of service.

"This year we have volunteers who will be spending time with residents in retirement homes," said Edwards, "I think that will be a really great thing for the senior citizens because many of them don't get a lot of company."

Helping to spread the message of King is the goal of many of the volunteers. Charlotte Westerhaus, director of affirmative action, is planning on spending Monday volunteering for Meals on Wheels and working with Joe Bennett, vice president of University relations.

Westerhaus said, "I just want to show some of the characteristics of Dr. Martin Luther King."

Along with spreading King's message, Westerhaus said that she looks forward to volunteering because it is fun.

"I like to volunteer, especially when you can provide something tangible, like a meal, and something intangible, like a smile, that will really brighten up someone's day," Westerhaus said.

Although it is less fortunate members of the community who will be helped by the volunteers, it is sometimes the volunteers who benefit more.

Edwards said, "I think that the people who volunteer often go away feeling like they've been helped more than they have helped someone else."

• Students, faculty and staff who are interested in finding out more about volunteering in the community can attend a Volunteer Information Fair from 12 to 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 16 in Tarkington Residence Hall.

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Campus editor: Laura Pelner

Assistant campus editors: Kurt Esposito, Dave Stephens

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