MLK Service Day!

Hey, everyone! How are you? How's it going?

This past weekend has been super fun! Due to a lot of students barely coming back for MLK Day, the school had MLK service day this past weekend! For service day, we were given opportunities to work with a variety of groups such as the Oregon Humane Society, SMYRC, and Friends of Terwilliger!

I had the amazing opportunity to work with the Oregon Humane Society by helping to clean their walking trail and placing down fresh, new chips of wood. It was super fun to meet the people that I was working with and being able to see all the dogs walking around! We were also able to walk around afterward and see all the animals available for adoption and I spent a lot of time with the cats because I absolutely love them!


Cat on its throne!


A part of the trail after clean-up and new chips!






Service day really reminded me why I love volunteering so much. It gives me this feeling that is difficult to explain and it just makes me happy being able to give back to the community. If any of you are new readers, then you may not know the quote I try my best to live by and it is: "Do not work for the recognition. Work for the happiness that befalls on those you help." 

One of the things I also loved about service day is that before everyone separated to get on the buses and head to their area, we had an amazing guest speaker. Her name is Jo Ann Hardesty and she is the chapter president of the NAACP Portland chapter. She gave such an empowering speech that really spoke to me and opened my eyes and mind to so many things. One thing she said stuck to me the most and that is, "You are the reality and the dream of the civil rights movement." 

Anyways, as it is getting rather late, I do have some really big plans for some of my blog posts this semester! I will try my best to make sure that they do happen so, please, bear with me! I know a good amount of our audience are currently taking their high school finals and I wish all of you the best of luck! Remember that your health always comes first and your mind can not function correctly if you do not sleep. Remember to take a break from staring at the screen and just close your eyes and calm your mind. I know it is a stressful time but do take time to take care of yourself! You got this!

If you have any questions or just want to talk, you can reach me at:

jessicadoan@lclark.edu

Here's the quote of the week:

"The time is always right to do what is right." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

♥ Jessica