|
....January 19, 2:11 PM |
| The Dream Continues: Volunteers Of All Races Come Together To Honor King, Build A Strong Community
By ELLEN THOMPSON A full 37 years after the life of America’s greatest civil rights and freedom leader was cut short, 500 volunteers filed into the Elmcor Community Center in Corona determined to carry on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that his beloved country would rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: that all men are created equal.
On Jan. 16, a day that honored not only his life but the struggles he faced while breaking down the Southern walls of segregation, volunteers of various races and faiths came together in one room for one of the largest community service projects New York City has seen. Students from Queens High School for Sciences in Jamaica, Cardozo High School in Bayside and others throughout the borough and around the country, along with community board members, faith and community based organizations and corporate sponsors woke up earlier than usual to be a part of City Year New York, an Americorps program, and the Mayor’s Volunteer Center’s community revitalization project in Corona. “It would have been wonderful to have a chance to sleep in, but it’s even greater to get up on a day off and give back,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “And the best way to remember what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for is by giving back to the community.” Getting Started After swearing in new members of Americorps’ Young Heroes program, who were beginning the first of their 13 Saturdays of community service, the middle school-aged heroes and hundreds of other volunteers headed towards their service sites. Close to 300 boarded buses to PS 19, the largest service site of the day, where they painted an entire hallway, an auditorium, an office, cafeteria walls and pieced together two tile mosaics for a school that houses 2,000 students. Another group of volunteers walked five blocks over to the Corona Congregational Church, ready to paint a stairway and walls as younger volunteers would take part in the church’s children’s carnival. At Elmcor, volunteers stayed behind transforming a storage closet into a pantry closet and painting murals of Civil Rights leaders. “We are really hoping to bring people together, even beyond today, to serve the community on a common ground,” City Year New York Executive Director Ken Grouf said. “Not only are members of Corona here today to better their community, their neighbors form the Bronx, Brooklyn and even Ohio are here to pick up a paint brush.” Shining A Light On Corona City Year, for the past three years, has been reaching out to different communities throughout the city on Martin Luther King Jr. Day revitalizing neighborhood resources like schools, community centers and churches that further King’s dream. Last year, the neighborhood of Crown Heights in Brooklyn was the focus of City Year and the Mayor’s Volunteer Center, and this year their attention turned towards Corona. “We were looking for an area with a large recent immigrant population,” said Mazli Parvizi, executive director of the Mayor’s Volunteer Center. “And Corona has a significantly large Latino population, a population that didn’t necessarily grow up with the history of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This way the youth can come and take part, see what this day is all about and go back to their parents, aunts, uncles and the older generations to teach them about his importance.” Elmcor Executive Director Lawrence Miller said the role Corona has played as the home of important Civil Rights figures such as Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, who guided and continued the movement, not only adds to the history volunteers would learn of, but makes it only appropriate that the service is given back to a community that epitomizes King’s dream. The years may have passed since the movement’s movers and shakers first made their mark on the streets of Corona, but their impact still exists. “Dr. King’s message applies as much to Corona today as it did decades ago,” said City Year leader Joel Castillo, 23, who works at PS 92 in Corona. “Corona is his message, where over the years the community changed from predominantly Italian, to African American and now Hispanic. These were diverse changes for a positive future where now children of different backgrounds get along with each other and can play safely on the street.” |
|
Serial Rapists Terrorize Southeast Queens World’s Fair Book Finds Missing Pieces Willets Point Seeks Recommendations Supreme Court Muddles State Gun Law Home Run For Queens Boys And Girls Club Assemblywoman Hit By Car Candidates Get Ready To Rumble Domestic Violence Center Opens In Queens Queens Family Mourns Loss Of Soldier Cemetery Buried In Property Debate Recent Hate Crimes Spur Local Reaction Queens Reacts To Passing Of City Budget Cut The Cost And Time Of Transportation Kitten Looks For A Nice Home More Than Two Ways to Begin Political Career Suicide Jumper Queens Parents Are Happy With Schools Parking Loss Due To Bike Lane Debated Teacher Accused Of Abusing Student Cop Impersonator Accused of Rape Queens Schools Fail Arts Requirements Politico Served With Civil Suit Future of Day Care Under The Scope | |||||||
|
|||||||||
