On Jan. 19, Micah Vacco, Coordinator of Student Leadership and Involvement, partnered with GivePulse and MTU as a whole to create an event target around educating and giving back to the community. This event was the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Students could sign up for numerous civil service activities ranging from helping Copper Country Humane Society to visiting and writing to the elderly. A popular tradition among civically engaged students, the event was completely booked a full week prior to the event.
One of the activities that received a lot of sign-ups, but was unfortunately canceled due to the weather, was reading to students across the Keweenaw. Micah explained, “Their students may not have known who MLK was or have resources to read about or talk about MLK, and so we typically bring books to those schools and donate those books so that they have books about MLK.” They had done many elementary school reading events, and while this one was canceled due to weather, they plan to do more.
Another popular event was the Letters Against Isolation. Students would come to the basement of the MUB and write letters that would be sent to the elderly. Brianna Ostrowski, a student who participated in this activity, said, “The residents usually don’t get that much… You know, the CNAs and stuff they try to do events for them… but because they’re there, they can’t get out much, and you know, it’s nice to hear from someone because a lot of them might not even have family that visits them.” Ostrowski expressed the importance of this actively, especially now, where the harshness of the UP can often bring spirits down.
While the weather did impact some events, what mattered were the people who still came out despite the weather. Many still came despite their original event being cancelled and pivoted to another event to continue the mission of helping others. When asked what made the students still come out to do the activities despite the harsh weather, another student working on letters for the elderly, Marisol Taylor-Casamayor said, “It just makes people more connected to their community… [I]t’s always nice to do one small thing…”
Overall, Student Leadership and Involvement was thrilled by the turnout of Tech students, and plan to make a Day of Service a yearly event.
