MLK Day of Service: 5,000 Wrapped Books!

Kendall and Cory busy wrapping books

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?” This was the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr on January 19, 2013. On this Saturday, 3,000 volunteers came together to answer that question by volunteering at Harding University High School and East Mecklenburg High School where Promising Pages was setup to wrap 5,000 brand new children's books. 

Some children are not so fortunate to have the abundance of books available to them. That is why as a part of Promising Pages One Million Book Revolution (OMBR), we offered these books to be wrapped to eventually be given to less fortunate children in hopes to bring a smile to their faces while providing them with knowledge to nurture them as they grow. The Martin Luther King Service Event at East Mecklenburg High School and Harding University High School was sponsored by Hands on Charlotte. Eric Law and Bob Young form Hands on Charlotte led the volunteer activities at East Mecklenburg High School and Harding University High School respectively.

A group of volunteers posing for the camera

The event was such a great success and it would not have been without the help of our vigorous volunteers. Promising Pages was assisted by the East Mecklenburg H.S IB program student volunteer leader Yascara Chavez kept everything running smoothly. At both locations, cutting stations were setup on one side where some people cut out wrapping paper to hand to people at the wrapping stations where the books were wrapped, tapped and labeled. US Airways DO CREW were present at the event and had a nifty setup of their own. Sheryl cut out the wrapping paper and passed it on to her coworkers Lecko, Cary and Ray who then wrap the books and passed it on to Kelsey to Label. The DO CREW team does a lot of volunteer work in and around Charlotte. Janna Simmons of AmeriCorps was also a big help. When asked about her favorite book she answered, “Harry Potter” and she said she prefers to read the book as opposed to watching the movie because the movies are never as good.  

We had a tremendously helpful group from TARGET, led by Therese Roberts, Executive Team Leader. They alone wrapped and filled several bins with over 200 books in each. 6 year old twins, Kendall and Cory wrapped tons of books, saying “This is actually fun.” we had a father and his 8 year old son, who wrapped well over 100 books in 3 hours. 

An astounding 5000 books were wrapped for Promising Pages at East Mecklenburg High School and Harding University High School! This makes this by far and wide our most successful volunteer event to date.  It would not have been possible if Marcel Solomon, HOC volunteer coordinator, had not strongly encouraged us to get the books, cleaned, stamped, bagged, and ready to be picked up by him and his Americorp volunteers. We also want to thank Link Garland, of Earth Fare Ballantyne for providing Promising Pages with the 100 donated bags. And finally, a big thanks to our interns and volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without them.

As one of the many service events dedicated to this day, we go on to prove that the hard work of Martin Luther King Jr. was not in vain and he will continue to be remembered all over the country.                                          


-Vanessa Agbozo