Students serve Reading in honor of MLK

Nearly 200 students and faculty members from Alvernia University served various organizations throughout Berks County as part of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.

Participants provided service for Berks County organizations including the Phoebe Berks Retirement Community, Helping Harvest, Hope Rescue Mission Thrift Stores, Hopewell Furnace, Habitat for Humanity, Mary's Shelter, Olivet Boys & Girls Club, Reading Area Firefighter's Museum, Reading City Hall, Reading Pagoda, Reading Science Center and St. Joseph's Villa.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is part of a national initiative of community service and is also one of four traditional Days of Service at Alvernia - where students volunteered 40,000 hours annually. Alvernia's other annual Days of Service include Freshman Orientation Day in August, St. Francis Day in October, and Earth Day in April.

Alvernia's individual, group and mass service ventures are coordinated by the university's Holleran Center for Community and Global Engagement, currently in its 12th year of operation.