Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
On January 18, 2010, seven Missouri Campus Compact member campuses will work toward achieving Dr. King’s dream through the MLK Collegiate Challenge. Cottey College, Metropolitan Community Colleges-Kansas City, Missouri Southern State University, Missouri Western State University, Truman State University, University of Central Missouri, and University of Missouri-St. Louis received mini-grants from Missouri Campus Compact to serve as host campuses for the second Missouri Meets the Challenge! MLK Collegiate Challenge on MLK Day of Service.
During the 2009 MLK Collegiate Challenge, over 775 students, faculty, staff, and community members provided services ranging from painting a local library to building shelves for a Habitat for Humanity store. In 2010 we expect to have well over 1,000 participants completing close to 80 community service projects across the state. Campuses who did not receive a mini-grant are encouraged to participate by partnering with one of seven the host campuses.
Missouri Campus Compact received the grant for the Missouri Meets the Challenge! MLK Collegiate Challenge from North Carolina Campus Compact and primary funder – the Corporation for National and Community Service. For more information about the MLK Collegiate Challenge, contact Melissa Mace at Missouri Campus Compact.
With leadership from Megan Hill, a MOCC AmeriCorps* VISTA, UMSL’s 2009 MLK Day of Service enlisted the help of almost 170 volunteers (including students, staff, faculty, and community members). They began the day attending UMSL’s MLK Campus-wide Observance. They, then, spent the afternoon volunteering at 12 different non-profit organization service sites for a total of over 680 hours. Take a look at the video documenting our 2009 program at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R7V84zq2h0