This story appears in the Spring 2024 issue of At Liberty.

Loving hearts, generous souls, and a commitment to helping others filled the United Lutheran Seminary’s Mt. Airy campus this past Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Linda Breckenridge and Volunteers Assemble Hygiene Kits

“I’m always looking for opportunities on MLK Day of Service to help,” shares Terelle, a volunteer. “I made a conscious decision this year that I wanted to find something that the Black Professionals Network at Blackrock could all come out and participate in.”

Terelle and his group were part of a diverse group of seventy volunteers from local churches, businesses, and organizations that participated in Lutheran Disaster Response-Eastern PA’s MLK Day of Service event. The volunteers honored Dr. King’s legacy, served their neighbors and community, and offered hope to the unhoused and those affected by natural disasters.

The volunteers embodied Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s vision of service as they assembled hygiene kits and cleanup buckets. The kits and buckets provide hope, inspiration, and a sign that people care.

the Rhosebud Club fills clean up buckets along with other volunteers

Eric and his team from the Giant Company volunteered to continue Dr. King’s legacy of giving back. “We care about connecting families with a better future,” Eric says. “What better day than today to celebrate what Dr. King meant to this country?”

The young girls in the Rhosebud Club, who are the “little sisters” of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, felt similarly inspired by Dr. King. “We’re here to serve the community,” Rhosebud Eva happily reports.

In all, the volunteers assembled 100 hygiene kits and 60 clean-up buckets.

The Welcome Church, which serves and ministers to the unhoused in Philadelphia, will distribute the hygiene kits. Various United Church of Christ churches will store the clean-up buckets and distribute them to families in need during flooding events, which have become more frequent and damaging in recent years.

Last September, LDR-EPa held another Day of Service event on God’s Work Our Hands Day. Volunteers assembled clean-up buckets that immediately went to flood victims in Martin’s Creek and Northampton County.

“I enjoy helping people and putting a smile on someone’s face,” Weston, a God’s Work Our Hands volunteer, shares. “I was raised to help people. The more I helped people, the more I liked it.”

With hearts full of grace and souls full of generosity, LDR-EPa and its volunteers will continue helping thousands of people across eastern Pennsylvania.