I have been working hard to coordinate a MLK Day Dream Camp and Canned Food Drive. I was part of a Dream Camp last year and thought it was a great thing for kids - informational yet interactive. As an AmeriCorps VISTA I am required to do an activity for MLK Day (and even if I weren’t I still enthusiastically would) and thought the Dream Camp and Canned Food Drive would be a great idea.
Promoting is much more time consuming than I realized. Designing the flyers and program, printing out thousands of copies, cutting them in half with a paper cutter, and then sorting them into piles to distribute to all the schools requires many, many minutes of the day. Recruiting volunteers is always challenging, but luckily people have been generously willing to come on board for this project. I have begun doing what I can do before hand to make the day less stressful - I painted a banner that says Love Comes In Many Colors that I’m going to have the kids dip their hands in paint and put their handprints on.
Activities panned for the day include our community service project, the canned food drive, but also Participation Stations - stations that inform about important civil rights issues and activists, but also include a game for the kids to play relating to the information. For instance, I am going to speak about Rosa Parks and then play musical chairs. Also we will be having MLK themed performances from the local college cheerleaders and a Music Education class to name a couple. I’m excited for this day and made a video about the things I have been doing to prepare: MLK Day Preparations If you have any ideas or suggestions I’d love to hear them!