For many students in the area, Martin Luther King Day was a productive, soul-enriching day of service rather than just another day off, as they participated in service events organized by The Center for FaithJustice or the Catholic Youth Organization of Mercer County.

For the past 11 years, the Catholic Youth Organization of Mercer County has partnered with Lawrenceville School for a day of service on Martin Luther King Day, and this year proved how successful that partnership is.

The CYO sent 65 youths to join Lawrenceville School students as they went to various community service sites throughout the city of Trenton and nearby.

Most of them went to the CYO’s main branch on South Broad Street, Trenton, but some also went to the CYO Day Camp in Yardville, the Hollow Brook Community Center in Ewing, or the CYO East State Street Center in Trenton.

“It makes them stop and pause and think about the significance of MLK Day,” said Tom Mladenetz, executive director of the Mercer County CYO. “It’s not just a holiday, day for  shopping or a long ski weekend. Martin Luther King was a man of action and that’s what the day of service is all about,” he said, adding the day is a chance to “think of how to make your community a better place.”

Remembering a moment that conveyed the importance of the youths’ spirit of service, Mladenitz told of when one of the boys in the preschool was playing in the gym and started talking to a volunteer.

“The volunteer realized the boy just needed somebody to listen and they kind of just went off to the bleachers to talk. This volunteer was giving his undivided attention to the child.”

Mladenetz said the CYO appreciates when schools or corporations help out.

“It’s a tremendous boost to us in getting things done around the facility, but it also makes it a special day for the children so we’re especially thankful for what they do.”

Youths from as far away as Skillman came to St. Ann Parish, Lawrenceville, to begin their service projects with the Center for FaithJustice. From St. Ann’s, which co-sponsored the event, the groups went to Enable group homes, the Princeton Care Center, Visitation Home in Yardville, Isles community service center in Trenton, the Rise thrift store in Hightstown, a thrift store in Morrisville, and two Kinderworld daycare centers in Trenton.

The groups of youths from seventh to 12th grade, 85 in total, came from the parishes of St. Charles Borromeo, Skillman; Sacred Heart, New Brunswick; St. Joan of Arc , Marlton, and St. Ann, said Jan Wilcox, Center for FaithJustice outreach coordinator.

The day of service is part of the center’s JusticeWorx program, which ties together faith, service and social justice by providing high school students with opportunities for prayer, community service and justice education through a weeklong summer program.

She said the number of students who participated would have been even larger, but many schools had classes on Martin Luther King Day this year to make up for school days lost by Hurricane Sandy.

For those who had the chance to come, Wilcox said they provided a “ministry of presence” to the people they visited, and she noted how a major part of what they did involved simply spending quality time with the people in the nursing and group homes. 

The students also participated in some hands-on work such as packaging and sorting clothing in the thrift stores. For example, at the Isles community service center, they helped clear out the basement so it can serve as a thrift store, and at Kinderworld they were given yard maintenance assignments, Wilcox said.

Once the day was over, she asked the youths to fill out an evaluation form and found “an overall positive reaction” to the day of service. At the end of the day, once they returned to St. Ann’s, the students had time to pray and reflect on the day.

“It was a very uplifting day,” Wilcox remarked. “They were a positive group of kids excited to do service. They were interacting with other kids from other parishes, talking to each other about the services they did. It was just a really cool thing to witness.”

Natalie Borisovets, a Confirmation class teacher from Sacred Heart, brought about 38 of her students to the day of service.  It was the third year in a row that Sacred Heart brought down its Confirmation class to participate in the event.

“They get a lot out of it,” Borisovets said. “They have a lot of fun. They really don’t know what they’re going to be doing until they get there, so there’s a little bit of worrying and anticipation, but they’re always happy when they’re done because they feel they’ve done something and had fun doing it.”

She said some of the students really blossomed through the services they undertook, and were asking if they could come back.

“They make a connection with the people they meet,” she said, recalling how when she was ready to leave one of the nursing homes they visited, many of the youths were still saying goodbye to the people they met there.

“JusticeWorx does a very good job,” she said of the FaithJustice program that organized the day. “(FaithJustice) has very good programs.”