Thomas Jefferson High School recently honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy throughout a week of service.
The school dedicated the week before Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a spirit week. Students donated things, such as mini toiletries, books, non-perishable food items, socks, yarn and fleece.
These items were used during the school’s annual service day on projects to make blankets, scarves and care packages for the homeless.
Aside from the service week, students also had an assembly to honor Martin Luther King Jr., with various performances dedicated to his legacy. The Black Student Union did a spoken word titled “Mahatma, Martin, Mandela,” honoring a couple of leaders. Thomas Jefferson student Dylan Detray prepared a speech that covered King’s legacy and dream as it relates to students at the school.
King once said, “If you want to be important wonderful, if you want to be recognized wonderful, if you want to be great wonderful, but recognize that he, who is greatest among you, shall be your servant … everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.”
The students’ goal was to show the school’s student body King’s vision on better serving others and students answered the call to action during a day of service on Jan. 20.
More than 140 volunteers from the school and greater Auburn and Federal Way communities completed six activities that will help people in the community.
One group completed no-sew blankets, where two large pieces of fleece were cut and tied together to make a blanket. Other activities included scarf knitting to put in care packages for the homeless, making cards to send to hospitals and the creation of paper beads. For every 20 beads created, one year of clean drinking water for a child was donated by the CEO of Amazon. Volunteers were able to create more than 1,500 beads to help the cause.
Some students also participated in a Redondo Beach clean-up effort, in partnership with the Puget Sound Peacekeeper Alliance.
In total, students and community members volunteered more than 350 hours of service.
