Day cards as part of MLK Day
of Service in Flossmoor. (Photo
provided by Maggie Bachus)
Flossmoor residents spent time Monday in service to others — collecting food, making greeting cards, helping the homeless and working with the area’s needy — as they marked the village’s first Martin Luther King Day of Service.
At Village Hall, Homewood-Flossmoor High School junior Hannah Levy took charge of a greeting card project for residents of Horizon Hospice and Palliative Care. The specially designed Valentines, covered with simple greetings, glitter and candy, will be delivered to Horizon’s Olympia Fields office.
New Flossmoor resident Gyata Kimmons came to the Village Hall with his young daughters, who are second and fourth graders at Western Avenue School, to work on the cards project. He applauded the village staff for arranging activities throughout the day.
So did resident Earl Reyes, who was working on cards with his young children, Simon and Mahal. He said the project was helping him teach his children the importance of making the Martin Luther King Day holiday a day to be proactive and in service to others.
Levy believes there are people who are willing to give a few hours to work on service projects throughout the year, so her next project is a monthly newsletter alerting fellow students and others of the needs of nonprofits. Her initiative will be counted as one of the service projects required of her for H-F’s International Baccalaureate Program.
Volunteers from Flossmoor Baseball and Western Avenue School came to the Village Hall to help load food donations for Respond Now, a service organization in Chicago Heights. Students at all five campuses in Flossmoor School District 161 collected food last week. On Monday, bags and boxes of food lined the municipal hallway before being loaded on the Respond Now truck.
“We had such a great turnout. It was just a line of kids handing off bags of food,” said Laura Brennan-Levy, a member of Flossmoor’s Human Relations Commission, which spearheaded the MLK Day of Service.
Elsewhere on Monday, volunteers at Flossmoor Community Church hosted a full day of activities for the homeless. The church has a regular homeless program as part of the PADS service organization. More than 30 PADS clients received haircuts, listened to a health care expert, got an art lesson and saw a theatrical presentation by H-F High School students.
At the Jones Center in Chicago Heights, volunteers hosted 35 children to a hot breakfast, MLK-themed arts, crafts and books, said Maggie Bachus, who helped organize the event. The Jones Center provides services to needy community members. Volunteers included four families, Girl Scouts, neighbors, friends and students from H-F, Parker Junior High and James Hart Junior High, she said.
“The MLK Day of Service event at the Jones Center was a huge success thanks to the fabulous breakfast donated by a local women’s book club, and volunteers,” Bachus said.
Assistant Village Manager Kimberly Richardson, a key organizer of the MLK Day of Service, said Flossmoor firefighters donated toiletries, clothing and other items. Members of the police department contributed coats.
“This is a giving community,” Richardson said. “You ask and people respond. It makes you proud to be part of Flossmoor.”
Photo gallery
More information:
Village of Flossmoor
Contact Marilyn Thomas at [email protected]
Contact Tom Houlihan at [email protected]