Story and photo by Emily Weisz
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What have you done for others?’”
On January 21, 2013, the UO Service Learning Program’s Duck Corps tried to answer that question by gathering people from the University of Oregon along with members of the Eugene community to aid a local high school. Volunteer members gathered Monday morning in the EMU Amphitheater to sign in, get their Duck Corps shirts, and then go off to Willamette High School, the site of this year’s volunteer event.
MLK Service Day is part of the national United We Serve initiative, which was started by the President Obama’s national call for service. It is billed as an opportunity for people of all different walks of life to come together for one common goal: helping others and truly making a difference.
Students gathered at the amphitheater at 11:00 am on their holiday-granted day off to serve the community. Across the nation, other students were doing the same. Sophomore Marissa Burns was one of the many students that showed up this brisk morning to lend her support to the initiative.
“This event brings people together for a good cause,” Burns said, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did great things and I think we need to recognize that we all have the ability to do good things.”
Once students arrived at Willamette High School they were brought into the cafeteria for coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks. While students were enjoying the warm relief of their beverages, leaders of the event were instructing volunteers about what they would be doing and why they were doing it. Volunteers were then separated into groups to start their work. Most volunteers were assigned to paint the several rooms in the school that were in desperate need of a fresh coat. Others braved the bitter cold and worked on the landscape outside of the school.
Along with volunteers from the University of Oregon and the Eugene community, there were also members of the Willamette High School leadership class that were helping out with the event.
High school student Vanesa Garcia was one of the leadership class members volunteering.
“We are very involved with events on campus but it is also important to us to get involved with events in the community,” Garcia said, “We thought that this volunteer event was a perfect combination of the two.”
Burns agreed, saying that this collaborative spirit is what the day is all about. Volunteers across the county in countless communities took time out of their day to improve their surroundings.
“Even though we may not always have a microphone and a speech we can still make a difference in our society,” said Burns.

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A Day of Service