From Service Project to Childcare, MLK Day Has Options

Are you looking for something to do on Martin Luther King Jr. Day? Or perhaps looking for childcare on a day when schools are closed?

Community Rocks has you covered, on both fronts. The Oaklyn arts studio is pairing up with Oaklyn Baptist Church to offer both a day of service for older kids and adults and a daylong camp for the younger kids.

“We’ve been doing the camp for a few years now,” says Sara O’Brien, who founded Community Rocks and Studio Luloo, the Oaklyn location where the camp will be held. “I worked City Year in Philadelphia and MLK Day was such a huge deal there. It really was ‘a day on, not a day off.’ It irritates me when people don’t know what the day is about.”

Instead of stew in silence, O’Brien got to work. First, for the younger crowd, ages 3-12, she’ll have a daylong camp at Studio Luloo. For $25, kids will get a full day of care (including lunch), music-making and arts projects. The day will be chock-full of information and projects on King.

“It’s not a day that kids should sit at home watching TV. We’ll have something engaging and fun for them,” O’Brien said. “We’ll read some of King’s speeches and there will be quotes up all over the studio. We’ll also do an on-site service with the kids by making crafts from trash—clean trash,” she added hastily.

For the older crowd, O’Brien partnered with Randy Van Osten, youth pastor and director of Revolutionary Youth Group at Oaklyn Baptist Church. The group will travel to the closed Holy Savior School in Haddon Township to sort through donations made for Hurricane Sandy relief.

Some donations were stored at the shuttered school after communities affected by Sandy became overwhelmed by the onslaught. While many donations were distributed to Sandy areas, the remainder will help people at rescue missions in Camden and Atlantic City. Volunteers on Monday will help sort the donations for distribution.

As with the Community Rocks camp, O’Brien said the push is to get children and adults alike thinking about the meaning of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“If you get them started young with service, when they get older, they’ll really consider this a day of service, as opposed to a day spent organizing their house,” O’Brien said. “It becomes ingrained in them to honor Dr. King and his message.

“King had a big voice, but many of the folks he worked with had much smaller voices. But when they worked together, those small voices made a huge difference, and that’s what service on MLK Day can do.”

Both the service project and camp are open to anyone in the community. Meet at Studio Luloo, 215 West Clinton Ave., Suite 101, Oaklyn at 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 21. Early drop off at 9 a.m. is available for the camp, which runs until 5:30 p.m.

For more information, call Studio Luloo at 856-858-4444 or email O’Brien at info@communityrocks.org.