More than 500 attend event at Coatesville High School, organized by students, faculty
By Jamie Richard, Correspondent, CoatesvilleTimes.com
Students volunteer their time to make quilts for the needy.
COATESVILLE – Students and community members came out in full support of the Coatesville Area School District’s Martin Luther King Day of Service, Monday.
The event was held at the Coatesville Area High School from 8 AM until 2 PM. Participants were able to attend workshops, lectures and activities in the hopes of encouraging community awareness and togetherness.
Michelle Rohrer of Exton attended the day of service to promote the opening of her new salon, Michelle’s Beautique.
Wanika Butler, Michelle Rohrer and Stephanie Wozniak
“There are people selling things, there’s a church handing out a newsletter…it’s great that all these different groups of people can come together,” said Roher. “We’re really getting the word out there about the salon, it’s great.”
Many of the service day’s events focused on giving back to the community including voter registration, community beautification, cards for servicemen and women, a blood drive making quilts for the needy and a food drive.
In the spirit of service, Students Winston Greene and Noah Willett of Coatesville donated their time to help facilitate the event. Both Greene and Willett are students at the 9-10 Grade Center and are members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps.
Instructor Dania Langly leads participants in zumba dancing.
“We’re helping being tour guides…helping people get around and find registration and activities,” said Greene. “ROTC always helps out with these kinds of events.”
“We really like to give back to the community and help out,” said Willett.
West Chester University professor and school board member Dr. Tonya Thames Taylor and Scott Middle School reading specialist Shamica Johnson organized the day of service. Aside from helping to run the event, Taylor facilitated a panel discussion of King’s activism.
“It’s great that we can have these people come in here and talk about his [King’s] activism and intellect,” said Taylor.
Johnson also considered the day of service to have been a huge success.
Winston Greene and Noah Willett help guide visitors.
“I think the event has been tremendous,” said Johnson. We’ve had a large pouring out of community members and students. We ran out of t-shirts to give out and we had over 500…I’m very impressed by the amount of people that came to support.”
The day of service also featured recreational activities such as zumba, hip-hop dancing, games and other activities designed to engage youth, something Johnson feels strongly about.
“I had a kid come up to me and say, ‘this is nice; this is fun.’ That’s important to me, that they’re getting something out of it but they’re having a good time as well.”
