“My mom is a teacher,” said Chloe Malau’ulu as she stood in a crowded storage space at the United Way of Lowndes and Noxubee counties’ office Monday morning, just before joining her teammates in packing boxes of supplies for local educators. “It means a lot to help (teachers) make sure they are equipped with the donations they need to give students the best learning experience.”
Malau’ulu, a senior business administration major, and her teammates from the Mississippi State University softball team volunteered Monday morning as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. This year’s project was Tools for Schools, which collected classroom supplies for teachers in Lowndes and Noxubee counties.
While the usual community breakfast and speaker were canceled due to COVID-19 concerns, the service project forged ahead.
“It’s all about using your platform,” Malau’ulu said. “As student athletes, a lot of people look up to us. If people see us giving back to the community and spreading goodness around, it will trickle down and other people will start following.”
Help is definitely needed, as donations for the program have been slow to start rolling in, said United Way Executive Director Renee Sanders.
“We have 700 teachers in Lowndes and Noxubee counties,” Sanders said. “About 170 have filled out applications for donations, and right now I probably have 50 of everything. We have a long way to go.”
The program started taking donations back in December, but “just kind of got covered up with Christmas,” Sanders said, and is trying to make up for lost ground over the next two weeks.
Sanders said “tangible” donations will be accepted from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. this week and next week at the United Way office, located at 223 22nd Street North. Those who would prefer to donate money can do so online.
“We want items that teachers can appreciate, like color copier paper, Expo (dry erase) markers, wipes, Kleenex,” she said. “Think of teachers, not students. We’re not looking for bookbags. We’re looking for things a teacher could use in their classroom.”
Boxes will start to go out to teachers in early February, she said.
“COVID has limited us as far as what we can do for community service, and we felt like this was the best thing we could do as far as community impact,” Sanders said.
MSU’s softball team jumped at the chance to help, said head coach Samantha Ricketts.
“We’ve got a lot of former players who are getting into teaching,” she said. “Quite a few are still in the state. (Teachers) not having resources is troublesome to hear about, and we’re trying to help where we can.”
It didn’t hurt that the team’s volunteer assistant coach is Sanders’ daughter, Ricketts said.
“We had a connection, and we knew that they really needed the help,” Ricketts said. “It’s not just about being an athlete, it’s about being a student and a person first. Taking care of the community goes right into that.”
Chanticleer assistance
Sanders also told the Dispatch that there had been an outpouring of support for families displaced by the Jan. 6 fire at the Chanticleer Apartments. More than 20 residents were made homeless by the blaze, which destroyed six units at the complex on Seventh Street North.
“The community has overwhelmingly responded,” Sanders said. “And for that I need to say thank you.”
Donations came from as far away as Calhoun City and Louisville, she said, but, at least for now, the greatest need is for cash and gift cards rather than household supplies.
“They do not need anything for their homes,” she said. “Many of them are staying with their families in one room, and they just don’t have the space.”
The United Way is also not set up to handle a large number of physical donations, she said.
“When I’m fully staffed I have two-and-a-half people,” she said. “Because of COVID, I have one-and-a-half. There are just not enough bodies to go through all the clothing we’re getting.”
When the time comes for donations of larger items, Sanders said she will come back to the community.
“All of (the victims) lost it all,” Sanders said. “Eventually they will need help with other items, but I’ve had one that reached out to me because they were getting behind on their car note. They could pay for a hotel room, or the car.
“Fire could not care less about economic status,” she added. “Everyone who was affected was not a poor person. Don’t have the mentality that something is better than nothing. Give like you would want to receive.”
Other MLK events
Justin Applin, a biracial Mississippi State University alumnus, said Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy affected him on a personal level due to his parents’ relationship being able to flourish in the current environment of the United States.
Just like King, Applin has a dream — one where gun violence is prevented and minorities are not wrongfully harmed by the law.
“I have a dream that we can live in a world where one day everyone is free to live to their full potential, free from envy and greed and for our society to increase equal opportunities, not just for minorities, but for all,” Applin said.
MSU held its 28th annual Unity Celebration Monday. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the celebration was virtual this year through MSU TV and the university’s social media channels.
Keynote Speaker State Sen. Angela Turner-Ford (D, West Point) reminded people as they gathered to celebrate King on Monday to remember not only his words but his prediction that unless the human race comes together, void of prejudices and hatred, the country could face a future of turmoil that could threaten the core of democracy.
“Our democracy is the concept that has made America the melting pot of the world — the one country where people from all over the world dream of coming to fulfill their destinies,” Turner-Ford said.
Turner-Ford addressed the issue of the political strife between the country’s two party system but said she believes America is far more united than divided, and many people choose to do the right things. Whenever loud masses outweigh the sounds of unvoiced opinions, she said, is the time for leaders to move forward, bringing new ideas and voices into the mix and becoming servants for the betterment of humanity.
“You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country and a finer world in which to live,” Ford said.
While King paved the way to equal citizenship for Black Americans, Turner-Ford pointed out how the country still has much work to do.
One kind act at the right time, seen by the right people, could influence masses of observers to do the same, she said, because unity is acts of kindness imitated by people who hopefully follow suit.
“Let us remember to implement Dr. King’s words into our daily lives and see how much more united we become, when we think, like he said in his speech ‘The Drum Major Instinct’ … ‘if I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he’s traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain,’” Turner-Ford said. “‘If I do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain.’”
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