King’s Community Takes Part in First Annual Day of Service
"I cannot think of anything that says that The King's College is 'in the city for the city' more than the campus community spending the day in service to the New York Gospel Mission—a leading provider of food assistance to the poor and the needy," said President Gregory Alan Thornbury.
On Saturday, January 24, The King’s College gathered from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm for the First Annual King’s College Day of Service at the New York Gospel Mission (NYGM).
NYGM is a church, food pantry, and outreach organization in Chelsea whose needs differ from those of the average ministry. Unlike many nonprofits, NYGM has ministry resources that are often difficult to attain—an excess of food to distribute (donated by Trader Joe’s Union Square) and a large, recently acquired historic church building. What they need, however, are extra hands and volunteers to use these resources—renovating the building and distributing food—and advance their ministry.
“I cannot think of anything that says that The King’s College is ‘in the city for the city’ more than the campus community spending the day in service to the New York Gospel Mission—a leading provider of food assistance to the poor and the needy,” said President Gregory Alan Thornbury.
About 180 volunteers from the King’s community—students, staff, faculty, alumni, and families—signed up for shifts at the Mission and worked on dozens of projects throughout the day on five different stories of the building. The projects included assembling new sanctuary chairs; sanding 150-year-old wood paneling around the church sanctuary; gathering, sorting, and distributing several vanloads of food to people in the community; de-cluttering, cleaning, and organizing the church basement and offices; and remodeling residential apartments for mission volunteers, including tearing down and replacing drywall.
The director of the Laurel Wreath Foundation, who was present during a Day of Service Planning meeting, was excited for the collaboration between King’s and the NYGM and donated $1000 for supplies earmarked for the Day of Service.
The Day of Service was organized by Lucy LeFever ’16, who works as City Engagement Coordinator at King’s, connecting students and volunteer opportunities in the city. Her job primarily consists of matching projects with Houses and individuals, but King’s also wanted to put together a project that would be open to the entire student body. “As I began building partnerships with various organizations last semester, I kept my eyes open for projects that could accommodate such a large group, and the New York Gospel Mission was a perfect fit,” said LeFever. “The Day of Service was a great way to launch the new semester. Students were able to serve alongside other students and faculty members in a relaxed setting and see a side of New York that is very different than the Wall Street neighborhood.”
“On a more practical level, the day reminded students that we don’t have to wait until graduation to begin serving the city and loving our neighbors—we can put the ideas that we learn in class into practice while we are still in school,” LeFever continued. “Multiple students have already contacted me and NYGM staff members about volunteering in the future, and I hope to see that enthusiasm continue in the semester and years to come at King’s.”
Staff at the New York Gospel Mission were thrilled with the turnout, and Pastor Bill Jones and Director of Ministry Development Andy Woodard mentioned several times throughout the day how the school was saving them, at a minimum, months of work.
“The response from the King’s community far surpassed all of my expectations. I was humbled and thrilled to see how many students turned out. They willingly gave up their day to give back to NYC—and they did it with smiles on their faces,” said David Leedy, Dean of Students. “As a result of the Day of Service, many more King’s students are now talking about ways they can serve the City in an ongoing way. Not only will the Day of Service become an annual King’s tradition, I believe it will result in many more King’s students stepping out into the City to make a difference in the lives of New Yorkers.”
“Humility is worked into our lives through the discipline of service. For this reason, I am pleased at the initiation of the King’s Day of Service,” said Eric Bennett, Vice President for Student Life. “Of course, it’s one thing to act like a servant for a day and quite another to live daily as a servant, but the annual Day of Service reminds us that service is liberation from slavery to self-interest.”