“This is America’s opportunity to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots… The real question is whether we have the will.” Although the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke those words in his 1966 “Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution” speech, according to the sixth annual MLK Day of Service committee members, they still ring true today.

And on Feb. 28, over 100 students, alumni and staff demonstrated that they “had the will” to bridge that gulf in Newark and Wilmington when they participated in MLK Day of Service, the second of two annual University of Delaware service days.

After an opening breakfast and keynote speech from Elder Blaine Hackett, senior pastor at St. John African Methodist Church in Newark, the participants journeyed to several different locations to serve with Friendship House, West Side Grows, Southbridge Community Garden, Neighborhood House, Urban Promise, and the newest partner, the Mary Campbell Center.

Students – separated into different teams – spent about three hours painting signs, cleaning and organizing schoolrooms, sorting 1,200 pounds of clothing, and participating in winter-themed games and activities with Mary Campbell residents.

“Students can positively impact their communities and communities in which they are visitors by contributing to the community’s vision of positive change,” said Matt Creasy, assistant director for student leadership in the Blue Hen Leadership Program and member of the MLK Day of Service committee. “It’s important that our students learn to be active in a community, and work with a community on what its goals are, rather than assuming they know what is best for that community.”

Annabel Feider, a residence hall coordinator and member of the MLK Day of Service committee, said she believes events like MLK Day of Service are a valuable eye-opener for UD students.

“Being on a college campus can be like living in a bubble, and it can be easy to wall yourself off from the rest of the community,” said Feider. “Through service, students can gain a better understanding of the social issues affecting our community, and what work is being done to address them.”

For Natalie Natalie Ambrosey, senior media communication major, challenging herself to take on the role of a team leader was one she better comprehended her part in serving the local community.

“I think that I was able to reflect more on what I was doing as compared to when I was just a participant,” she said. “I learned more about MLK and the reason behind ‘We Have a Will.’ It allowed me to understand and reflect better on what I was doing.”

According to Creasy, students can also learn empathy, the “understanding the lived circumstances of community members,” and how to best interact with a community.

Feider added, “Also, through interacting with professionals who work in these organizations, students can see the potential career opportunities that exist in the non-profit sector.”

Dr. King best illustrates the importance of serving and working with local communities in these words, written in a letter from Birmingham jail: “For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the inter-related structure of all reality…This realization is absolutely necessary if we are to remain awake in this revolution.”

The sixth annual MLK Day of Service is a partnership between Residence Life and Housing and the Blue Hen Leadership Program.