Volunteers to provide array of services on Jan. 17

Martin Luther King Jr. will be honored Jan. 19 with a national holiday, but many activists are urging that people use that day as a day of service, a day "on" instead of a day "off." Cottey College students will join community volunteers on Saturday, Jan. 17, to do just that, helping with a variety of activities.

Linda Platt, a Americorps Vista volunteer serving as the colleges service learning advisor, said that she hoped for at least 200 community volunteers, if not more.

"Nationally they're hoping to enlist over 1 million people for this service opportunity," Platt said. "Locally, I'm looking to enlist over 200 plus."

Platt has lined up several projects all over the county for people to volunteer headed by a variety of Cottey students. Mary Jinglewski, president of the Rotaract -- a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women ages 18 to 30 -- who is organizing a birthday party for a client of Skills Unlimited.

"We're a very active club with 27 members," Jinglewski said. "This is just one of the projects were doing."

Jinglewski is also involved with the Student Government Association, she's the group's vice-president.

"It's the governing body between the students and faculty," Jinglewski said.

Platt said that other students would be coordinating other activities with other groups including community schools, Boys and Girl Scouts and several 4-H clubs to do an extensive food drive to benefit Community Outreach.

"We're doing the food drive county-wide because Community Outreach benefits people all over the county," Platt said. "We felt donors needed to come from all over as well."

A mural project will bring Cottey students and Heart-land clients together to paint a mural at Heartland Hospital.

"The clients at Heartland and Cottey students led by Ying Kau will paint a mural at Heartland," Platt said. "They will go out there Thursday to look over where to place the mural and Heartland will outline the area to be painted."

Platt said she was looking for a few strong individuals to help at the Nevada Animal Shelter.

"They have some refrigerators and freezers that were donated but it turned out they weren't usable so they will load them up on a trailer to be hauled away," Platt said. "Cottey students together can pack quite a punch but I'm not sure how that works when they have to move a big, heavy freezer. We're hoping to get some help with that."

A soup and bean feed from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. will benefit the Housing Authority at the First Christian Church's Fellowship building (the former Aldi's). At the same time a poverty simulation project of On My Own/ West Central Community Action Council will be held.

Several groups will come together to renovate the community room at the Moss House. The room has been used since 1994 and needs redecoration.

Other projects include an indoor carnival for Housing Authority resident's children at the Community Center for children ages 6-13. A Bingo event will be held at the Crawford House from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.