HPU Honors Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy Through Day of Service

High Point University students, faculty and staff honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by volunteering more than 2,000 hours of service today. Pictured are students who smiled as they packed food for people in developing countries around the world.

HIGH POINT, N.C., Jan. 20, 2025 – High Point University students, faculty and staff honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by volunteering more than 2,000 hours of service today to more than a dozen service projects on campus and around the city of High Point.

The HPU community continued the university’s annual tradition of treating Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a “day on, not a day off” despite freezing temperatures in the area.

Hundreds of volunteers from across campus impacted the lives of thousands of people around the globe through their service. Volunteers took part in service projects ranging from filling 20,000 packets of vegetable seeds and packing 80,000 meals in the Slane Student Center to repainting the cafeteria at Oak View Elementary School in the city of High Point.

A Day On, Not Off

HPU students continued the annual tradition of service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day through projects to revitalize local organizations, clean areas in the city of High Point, pack thousands of meals and seeds and more.

Avery Miles, co-president of the Bonner Leaders Program, oversaw approximately 200 students as they packed 20,000 vegetable seeds in a large assembly line on the basketball court inside the Slane Student Center. The seeds will be distributed to nonprofits across Guilford County to help fight hunger.

“The students wanted to come not only because it was an annual event, but being able to serve and give back to your community is what Dr. King would have wanted,” said Miles, a sophomore marketing major from Burlington with a minor in social innovation. “It’s a day on, not a day off.”

Nearly 500 students from across campus packed 80,000 meals for people who are struggling with food insecurity, said Oliver Stoutner, assistant professor of management and director of the Business Fellows Program.

“There’s certainly a giving-back element to all of the Fellowship Programs around campus, but more importantly I find that our students have a heart for others and understand the impact,” Stoutner said. “This is going to folks who are struggling with hunger all over the world, not just in the local community. It goes where there is the most need. We’ve been partnering with Rise Against Hunger in this meal-packing event for seven years, and in that time, we’ve packed nearly 400,000 meals. This is the biggest year we’ve ever had, but we keep growing every year.”

Approximately 40 student volunteers packed 500 winter care kits with essential items, including gloves, toboggans, blankets, handwarmers, toe warmers, lotion and lip balm. The kits will be distributed to the homeless population in Guilford County through the Point-In-Time Count, said Osliany Mora-Morejon, co-president of the Bonner Leaders Program.

“I feel like I do this on an everyday basis,” said Mora-Morejon, a junior criminal justice major from High Point. “I work at a nonprofit organization, and it’s normal for Bonners, but to actually see students come out and do this with us is heartwarming to show the same care for the community. It’s seeing beyond yourself and showing an impact in everyday things. You didn’t have to come out, but you did, and you came with purpose.”

More than 50 volunteers, mostly HPU students, faculty and alumni, took shifts repainting the walls inside the cafeteria of Oak View Elementary School, which is located a short drive from HPU’s campus. It was part of HPU’s Brushes for Brilliance initiative in which student volunteers go into schools and revitalize them.

“I’m excited for when the scholars walk into the cafeteria for the first time and are like ‘Woah!’ and to be able to share with them that volunteers came in on the day in which the scholars were off school to serve in their community and to really model for us what I want them to do one day — to give back to their community and continue that long, long legacy of belonging to something greater than yourself,” Oak View Elementary School Principal Bennie Bradley said.

After painting the walls blue, Bradley said a mural will be put up inside the school’s cafeteria to feature historical landmarks around High Point, including historic Washington Street and the Nido and Mariana Qubein Children’s Museum. He said the cafeteria’s new look will help his students learn more about the city where they live and have a greater sense of pride for it.

“Principal Bradley was just talking about how HPU helped renovate their library, and a lot of the kids really enjoy going to the media center now,” said Mikaela Chin, an HPU AmeriCorps VISTA who graduated in May 2024 with an exercise science/biomechanics degree and is currently a graduate student in the communications and business leadership program. “We’re hoping that same energy will be put into the cafeteria, making it not just a place where they can eat but a place where they can socialize and be with their friends as well.”

HPU’s Workman School of Dental Medicine partnered with the local nonprofit organization FaithAction International to provide free preventative and restorative dental care to approximately 47 immigrants and refugees in the Piedmont Triad at two HPU Health locations in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Celebrating Dr. King Through Worship

Students, faculty, staff and community members filled Hayworth Chapel as HPU hosted its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Worship Service this morning. Bishop Gregory Vaughn Palmer commemorated King’s memory and legacy as the guest preacher. He has served in the highest episcopal offices of the United Methodist Church, most recently as the episcopal leader of the Ohio West Area of The United Methodist Church.

Palmer’s message focused on Luke 4:14-21. He noted Jesus knew who he was despite facing challenges and temptations in the wilderness. Palmer asked audience members whether they have the confidence to stand firm in their own identities as God’s children and servants.

“There are voices all the time saying this is who you really are, and that’s what the adversary was saying to Jesus,” Palmer said. “He kept pushing back. It looked like he might be weakening in the desert. Jesus returned from the wilderness full of the holy spirit, anointed, drenched, drowned with the holy spirit. Can I say overwhelmed with the sense of a profound knowledge of who he really was as God’s servant messiah? When you know who you are, you can begin to act in different ways.”

“Service is more than an act of kindness, it is an act of courage,” said Kimberly Drye-Dancy, executive director of the Robert G. Culp Jr. Center for Community Engagement. “As Dr. King reminded us, the time is always right to do what is right. Today, we have the opportunity to not only honor his dream, but to live it and to show up for each other. So let us rise to the challenge. Let this MLK Day be a starting point, a spark for ongoing action. Together we can create change, one act of service at a time.”