On Monday, January 18, Tusculum College students celebrated the life and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King with service projects and Tusculum’s Tom McKay, student services facilitator for the Knoxville Regional Center, shared his personal story as a speaker at the Oak Ridge Martin Luther King multi-denominational services at First Christian Church.
“Because Martin Luther King was devoted to service, we are designating the holiday not as a day off, but as a day on — devoted to serving others,” said Joyce Doughty, director of the College’s Center for Civic Advancement.
The activity was sponsored by the Center for Civic Advancement and the Tusculum College Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Doughty said there were seventeen volunteer Tusculum College students and staff members who gathered to work with children from the Greeneville Boys & Girls Clubs.
The Tusculum College students spent time with their young visitors working on a variety of arts and crafts projects, including flower making and helping the 24 children who participated create pet rocks and put together coloring books for patients in local hospitals. Several of the Tusculum students who are in the Bonner Leaders program will accompany the children to deliver the books on Monday, January 25.
McKay was one of several speakers to participate in the Martin Luther King Day services in Oak Ridge and focused his topic on “What Martin Luther King Means to Me.”
“I spoke of my experience with segregated schools being integrated in Paden City, W.V., as well as my ‘colored’ roommate at the United State Naval Academy who became the Outstanding 1960s Alumnus in 1995,” said McKay.
He also discussed how much the world has changed, and the integration of his own family when he welcomed his daughter-in-law into the family in 1990.
