City Park School draws inspiration from Martin Luther King Jr. for second annual Day of Service

Jan. 15—Ayanna Love was making a pop-up card out of construction and printer paper in her fourth-grade reading class at City Park School on Friday.

"It says 'Friendship is love,'" she said as she showed her classmates.

As part of City Park's second annual Day of Service, Love and fellow students from teacher Nicole Gillispie's class made personalized cards for people from City of Refuge Dalton, a nonprofit organization that supplies food, clothing, support and educational services to families or individuals in need.

"We're doing this to hopefully make their feelings better," said fourth-grader Breyda Geronimo.

The Day of Service, which was created out of a desire to give students more service opportunities coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a school-wide event that involves City Park students and staff celebrating the many avenues that service can take as they learn about the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

The day also celebrates the school's monthly PAWsitive Panther trait for January, school pride.

City Park Principal Kim Rhyne, who helped create the idea for the celebration with media specialist Hannah Talley, said King's life exemplified serving others.

The day-long celebration included visits from guest speakers, completing self-chosen service projects (both within and outside the school), a meeting on volunteer opportunities for school council members and a parade.

"There's been a lot of positive feedback; the kids and the teachers enjoy it," said Talley. "MLK Day itself is a day of service, and our kids aren't here at school, so we just felt like if we did it during a school day like this we would give an opportunity for them to put (his) beliefs into action."

Kindergarten teacher Missi Roper's classroom's service project involved restocking the food pantry outside the First Presbyterian Church at 101 S. Selvidge St.

"All this week we've been talking about Martin Luther King (Jr.) and the services that he did," Roper said. "So, all week, all of my kids brought in nonperishable items and today we walked down there and we filled the pantry up. It was totally empty, so all of my kids were excited to know that they put more food in there."

Rebekah Rogers' first-grade students, with special education teacher Shalin Bergeman, visited First Baptist Dalton at 311 N. Thornton Ave. as part of their service project.

"We walked over and went into classrooms ranging from 2-year-olds to 4-year-olds," Rogers said. "We read with students and walked through the centers with students, and it gave the opportunity for our kids that are usually only learning at school to then participate with other kids and just see truly who they are as kids. They had a good time."

City Park students received a visit from school mascot PAWS the Panther, while some received the opportunity to meet another furry friend in the form of Sassy, a terrier and dachshund mix dog who, along with Carol Burton of the Humane Society of Northwest Georgia, visited Anita Smith's kindergarten class.

"Our Service Day is a commemoration to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how he wanted service and everybody to love everybody and take care of each other," said Smith, who volunteers with the Humane Society. "I actually started last year having them come to my classroom and just present to the kids about pets that need to be adopted, because they need a home just like we all do."

Smith said she talked with parents and asked them to donate items such as pet food and toys "just to take care of them."

"I really think this is special for (her students) as kindergarteners to learn about adopting an animal when they're young, so that as they get older or move away, they can say 'Oh, I'm going to adopt.'"

Students including those from second-grade teacher Holly King's class helped ESOL (English to speakers of other languages) teacher Alecia Halman sort and package food items for the Helping Hands Ending Hunger Inc. nonprofit organization, which is run from within the school.

"Whatever students do not eat or don't want from breakfast or lunch, they can donate it and other kids can get food from the donated food sections we have on each floor," Halman said. "Whatever is not eaten during mealtime gets stored in our freezer or refrigerator and then redelivered out to homes that are food insecure on Fridays. This is our fifth year (with Helping Hands) and we've rescued over 65,000 pounds of food so far since we've started."

On Wednesday, Ginger Farmer's first-grade class was treated to a visit from Nathan Perez, a lance corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps and older brother of City Park first-grader Alessandra Trochez, while he was on leave for the holidays.

During the Day of Service on Friday, Farmer's students created cards for other military service members to "thank them for their service, protection and our freedom," Farmer said.

Fourth-grade students Khadi' Reynolds, Kyson Andrews and Frank Davis said being a part of the parade throughout the school hallways was a highlight of the celebration.

"Being part of the parade was fun," Andrews said. "I was kind of nervous because it was my first time, but it was fun to see all of the people smile."

Davis, whose class made cards and bracelets for local firefighters, said he relaxed soon after the music started.

Reynolds, whose class created cards for the Whitfield County Senior Center, spoke of the importance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

"It's a day that you can speak up and do things that people weren't able to do back then," she said.

Andrews agrees.

"(Martin Luther King Jr.) helped everybody be more together," he said. "Everybody is equal."