This year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations in Clark County will include showing appreciation to a group often overlooked.
When Angela Berry, a volunteer for Winchester’s Win-City Productions, a non-profit community service organization, learned that Clark County Community Education was looking for a way to involve youth in a service project in honor of MLK Day, she thought about local sanitation workers. In the weeks leading to his death, King was working with sanitation workers on strike in Memphis, fighting for better treatment and working conditions.
“It’s something different ... and it makes everyone feel like they’re important,” Ronda Simmons, a Win-City Productions volunteer, said.
Simmons said the project also was a good opportunity for young people to learn about helping others.
“It’s good to do something for somebody else,” Simmons said. “It’s a good thing to teach our youth. It’s not always about you.”
In November, Winchester was named one of America’s 100 Best Communities for Young People for the second year in a row, a distinction that includes grant money to help youth become more active in the community. Community Education Director Cora Heffner partnered with Simmons and Berry to design a project to both honor King and show youth the importance of helping others.
Girl Scout Caroline Browning decided to join the project to fulfill requirements to earn a Gold Award after hearing about it from a fellow Girl Scout.
Browning, a 15-year-old George Rogers Clark High School sophomore, said she had previously planned to build a bench and design landscaping for her project, but when she heard about the lunch for the sanitation workers, she decided to become involved.
“I’m really outgoing, and I love doing social things,” Browning said.
The new project gives her the opportunity to spend more time getting to know community members, and she liked the idea of doing something nice for a group of people rarely recognized.
Browning began working with Win-City Productions and Community Education in November to coordinate the event. Having participated in Girl Scouts since she was 4, she has participated in numerous community service projects, including helping provide landscaping around the flag pole at the soccer complex her brother, Blake Browning, provided for his Eagle Scout project.
“I love being around people,” Browning said.
In addition to serving sanitation workers lunch at Central Baptist Church, youths also will perform skits for the workers to educate about Martin Luther King Jr. First Baptist Church-Highland Street children and teens and Browning’s fellow Girl Scouts from Troop 699 will be part of the skits, give speeches and help serve the food and participate in a poster contest.
About 80 sanitation workers are invited to the lunch, including employees from S&G Sanitation, WMU and Rumpke.
Lunch is provided by Subway and Schoolmaster’s Bakery.
Contact Rachel Parsons at rparsons@winchestersun.com, or follow her on Twitter, @ParsonsRachel.
