Penn Honors Martin Luther King Jr. with Day of Service

The University of Pennsylvania will remember Martin Luther King Jr. with the Commemorative Symposium on Social Change , a series of community events that runs through Feb. 3.

Volunteers are still needed for the MLK Day of Service at Penn, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 16, with a community breakfast inside Houston Hall’s Hall of Flags at 3417 Spruce St.

Day of Service volunteers will participate in a variety of service projects until 2 p.m., both on campus and across the West Philadelphia community.

One group will participate in a beautification projects to paint and clean at Comegys Elementary School, Huey School, Sayre Recreation Center and the Community Education Center in West Philadelphia.

Another group will be at the Houston Hall auditorium working with young children to create a collage of images and decoupage a "Seat of Justice" wooden bench, representing the life and accomplishments of King. This is the fourth year for the "Seat of Justice" activity and each year, the African-American Resource Center donates the bench to a local elementary school.

Other volunteers are needed on campus to mentor students, to create books on tape to promote youth literacy and to create gifts that will be donated to area shelters, nursing homes and hospitals.

The Day of Service wraps up at 7 p.m. with a candlelight vigil that will begin at the W.E.B DuBois College House at 39th and Walnut streets and end at the Compass, near 37th Street and Locust Walk.

A listing of events is available at http://www.upenn.edu/aarc/mlk/calendar_mlk.htm