Kellie Medley is spending most of today volunteering in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
The 19-year-old can't be sure where she will work or what she will do until she, along with about 70 other Lenoir-Rhyne University students, show up this morning to be randomly divided into groups.
It's part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, sometimes called the MLK Challenge.
Students will be exposed to groups that target lower-income communities, which might take them a little out of their comfort zones, said Emma Sellers, director of multicultural student services at Lenoir-Rhyne.
"That's what Martin Luther King did," she said. "He tapped into uncharted waters."
After they get their assignments, dozens of students will paint classrooms at Centro Latino, remodel a kitchen at the Women's Resource Center and sort through yard sale items at Hickory's Exodus Homes warehouse, said Brandon Ostwalt, an Americorp VISTA representative charged with encouraging volunteerism among students at the college.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is a national observance of the King holiday designed to bring together people who might not ordinarily meet, to break down barriers, create relationships and recruit volunteers for ongoing work.
Initiated by Congress in 1994, the aim is to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a day on, not simply a day off.
Medley, who is from Lenoir, said she also will feel good today for another reason. The volunteer work is her way of saying "thank you" to Hickory, where she's seen people show up to help with a charity walk by her sorority and turn out to applaud the school's new gospel choir.
"I just felt like this was a good chance for me to give back to the community that's given so much to me," Medley said.
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