Volunteers Sew, Organize, Play, Weatherize and Create for King Day
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — They gathered around tables cutting and sewing material, cleaned and organized, covered leaky windows with plastic, bagged up groceries, wrote cards and played with Legos.
Some 350 community members ranging from the very young to the older but young at heart turned Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. Day off into a "day on." After a morning spent working, a celebration luncheon with speakers was held at the MCLA Church Street Center to honor members and the memory of the civil rights activist.
This year's Martin Luther King Jr. Peacemaker Award was presented to PopCares, which has distributed more than $122,000 to local families struggling with cancer. The group was established in 2012 in memory of William "Pop" St. Pierre, who died that year of lung cancer.
"Pop was the kind of guy who would help everybody and anybody," said his son Bob St. Pierre, speaking on behalf of his family. "He figured out the secret to happiness, it was simple: you help others in need and expect nothing in return."
St. Pierre said PopCares' success was really a community success because of the support it had received.
"It does seem kind of crazy for receiving an award for something we are all called to do, which is to help others ... this is a truly a community award," he said, challenging attendees to reach out to "reach out to someone who is struggling" and help make their day better.
Students from Williams College and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, community members, local officials and members of service groups such as Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, filled the lower level of the MCLA Church Street Center on Monday morning to sign up for a few hours of volunteer work.
"The combinations of people in all the groups I think was interesting," said Kathy Keeser, a member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Committee. "We had MCLA students, we have Williams students and we have lots of people from all over the community of all ages
"Plus we had a lot of families with kids, which is what I really liked."
Vans and volunteers spread out around North County, heading to First Congregational Church for cleaning and sorting the church's community areas, winterizing local homes with caulk and plastic (courtesy kits from Williams' Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives), stocking shelves at Goodwill Industries in North Adams and organizing the community room at the Berkshire Family YMCA.
Upstairs at the Church Street Center, parents and children created gift boxes for overseas service members and worked on collage banners for Sweet Brook Care Centers in Williamstown. Downstairs, volunteers were stitching together panels that declared what residents wanted in North Berkshire — from kittens to staying weird.
"The work is what we're in it for," said Julia Bither, one of the organizers for Emily Johnson Catalyst Dance. The patches were gathered during several of artist/dancer Johnson's "Community Visioning and Sewing Sessions" and the resulting quilt will be joined to 80 others to become of a larger 4,000 square foot project, that combined will offer a massive platform for stargazing and storytelling.
In Adams, players from the MCLA basketball team, regular participants in the day of service, were spending time with children at the Youth Center.
"It's a tradition, we do it every year, we just get a couple players from our team and go," said Paul Maurice. Last year, they helped with weatherization, this year they were helping some of the center's youngest members put together Lego creations. Maurice pointed to a boy playing with a Lego truck and joked, "I helped him do that and he's taking all the credit. ... It's all good."
This was the first year the Adams Youth Center was a volunteer site said enrichment coordinator Amber Lafogg, and it gave a chance for some of the younger kids to work with Legos, since the number of participants is usually limited.
"They were excited," she said. "They could take the kits out and get help."
MLK Committee member Alex Daugherty, acting as emcee for the postlunch presentations, said he was impressed and inspired by the number of people who turned out.
"What I take away from this every year is to live my life in service to others," he said. "If you can do that, at least one day of your life every year ... you've done something."
State Rep. Gailanne Cariddi, D-North Adams, said the numbers showed a real commitment to the community. "It really warms my heart to see people come back over and over again, year after year," she said.
Mayor Richard Alcombright thanked everyone for their efforts and said the city would be applying for designation as a "Promise Zone" (possibly with Adams) that could bring in grants and aid from 13 federal agencies to help address some of the employment, health and addiction issues so many volunteers have been working on.
State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing had spent the morning in his hometown of Pittsfield, working with that city's MLK events.
"Don't ever underestimate the power of your actions, don't ever underestimate what one small, kind deed can do to change the course of events in one individual's life, in one event in your community's life," he said, adding that Dr. King would have been proud of their efforts. "Don't ever underestimate your own power."
Tags: MLK Day, peacemaker, volunteers,
