MLK Read-In enjoys another successful year

On Monday, Jan. 20, more than 100 community members joined the Center for Service-Learning at this year’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Read-In at Village Books. The Read-In gave 24 Western student volunteers the opportunity to serve the community by reading books about diversity, multiculturalism and the civil rights movement to the 81 children who came to read.

One student volunteer shared that a favorite moment was when a child asked, "Why would people be afraid that Martin Luther King wanted everyone to be treated the same?"

Volunteers received training from Karen Hoelscher, professor of elementary education in Woodring College of Education, preparing students to engage with children through stories about social justice and diversity. The training gave students a greater context for the significance of the conversations they would have with children they read to.

This year’s group of student volunteers was appropriately unique demographically, including five international student volunteers from Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria and Pakistan, one of whom was deaf and served as the event photographer. There was also an increased interest in this event from male students; this year recruiting nearly 30 percent male volunteers.

With the support of Village Books and the AS Bookstore, the community donated nine beautiful books to donate to the library at Alderwood Elementary School, a school with 81.3-percent free and reduced lunch.

To read more about the MLK Day Read-In, see the Western Front’s coverage of the event. For more information about the Center for Service-Learning, visit the CSL website or contact service.learning@wwu.edu or 650-7542.