Dr. Martin Luther King honored by service work

 “What are you doing for others?” was a question posed a half-century ago by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
 
In response, approximately 400 youth, young adult groups, parishes and families can say they honored the slain civil rights leader’s dream of service in the New Orleans community Jan. 16 on the eighth annual Martin Luther King Day On, Not Off in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

The day began at 8:30 a.m. at Jesuit High School with a prayer service led by Archbishop Gregory Aymond. Dr. Ansel Augustine, director of the Office of Black Catholic Ministries for the archdiocese, said the archbishop alluded to Jesus washing the feet of his apostles, saying the young people were figuratively washing people’s feet through service.

The volunteer groups were dispatched to 15 sites throughout New Orleans to beautify and clean up schools, parks and cemeteries and work with the elderly, sick and those in need.

Dillon Delaune, 16, a Brother Martin High junior, was with approximately 25 fellow students who cleaned and straightened crooked tombstones of soldiers buried at the Chalmette National Cemetery, next to Chalmette Battlefield. It was Delaune’s third year and third different site in which he volunteered on MLK Day On, Not Off. In past years, he worked with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade in their fight to help the environment and planted trees in City Park.

“I think I’ve had great experiences every time I go,” Delaune said. “It’s been a great opportunity. The service we do is giving back to the community. “It ties into King’s message. Everything he did was for the community – whether it was for the black community trying to strengthen civil rights or for the poor to get better working conditions or wages or ensuring that people across the country had civil liberties and the rights that they deserved. The services that we did across the community helped us live out his message of giving back and strengthening the places that we live and the people around us.”

New sites in 2017
Shannon Murphy from Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans Volunteer Services coordinated the sites for the Day On Not Off.

“We had a few different sites this year,” Murphy said. “We had Our Lady Star of the Sea and the former Holy Ghost School behind St. Katharine Drexel Parish. And, we worked with Save Our Cemeteries at St. Louis No. 2.”

Other service work sites were: City Park, Animal Rescue New Orleans, Second Harvest, St. Mary’s Academy, Cafe Hope, St. Margaret’s Daughters, Ozanam Inn and Ronald McDonald House.

From what Augustine heard, the youth enjoyed the opportunity of bonding with their youth ministers in service while using their gifts to help people.

“It went well,” Augustine said. “It went very smooth. … The people at City Park said they were very grateful and couldn’t do anything without the help of volunteers.”

Murphy said she used the nonprofit Independent Sector’s value of volunteer time at $23.56 an hour to calculate that the estimated value of the work completed during the five hours of the MLK Day On Not Off to be about $44,646.

The Office of Black Catholic Ministries coordinates the day with the help of the archdiocesan Office of Racial Harmony, Office of Catholic Schools, Office of Religious Education, CYO/Youth & Young Adult Ministry and Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordelon@clarionherald.org.