More than 40 students from SUNY Old Westbury gathered to compile comfort kits for victims and survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence as part of Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, a call to service initiative by the Corporation for National and Community Service. The event on Friday, February 24, 2017 was part of the College's Black History Month programming.
The goal of the service project was to illustrate through hands-on experience the importance of conducting civic engagement activities and the positive power of what service can mean to the people and communities in which the students reside. The comfort kits were inspired by the State University of New York's "SUNY's Got Your Back" program, where backpacks are filled with personal care items, and delivered to shelters and centers across Long Island. Students also wrote anonymous messages of support to the comfort kit recipients. Items and funds were donated by King Kullen, Target, SUNY System Administration, the Division of Student Affairs, Enrollment Services, the Library, and the Residence Hall Association.
The event was sponsored by the Omicron Delta Kappa Student Leadership Honor Society, who were awarded a 2017 Maurice A. Clay Leadership Development Initiative Grant of $500 for the project. <->This is the fourth year that Old Westbury has participated in Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, with previous projects including the creation of disaster preparedness kits and care packages for the needy, and activity kits for children in a local hospital. The College is a proud member of the national event organizer's President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
