Day of Reflection and Service
Each year, MIFA holds its Day of Reflection and Service celebration, or DRS, sponsored by ServiceMaster, to honor its staff, volunteers, and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year’s event was held on Saturday, March 27, 2010. Mayors A C Wharton, Jr. and Joe Ford issued a proclamation to CEO J. Patrick Spainhour and ServiceMaster for the work the company does in this community. ServiceMaster sponsors DRS each year.
Minister Darell Harrington of New Sardis Baptist Church offered a reflection, reciting passages from some of Dr. King’s most famous speeches. Peter Tosches, Vice President of Corporate Communications at ServiceMaster, and Tanya Bowley, MIFA supporter and founder of Visionary Urban Development Corporation, served as emcees for the event.
Each year at DRS, the winners of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Oratorical Contest are announced. This year’s winners are Janessa Dockery (third place, Hollis F. Price High School), Bo Moore (second place, Northside High School), and Kamaria Coleman (first place, Central High School). Nina and Matthew Thornton sponsor the contest each year, and Nina presented the students’ awards. Kamaria delivered the keynote address, her winning speech from the 2010 contest.
Fabulous music was provided by Re-Entry Band. Many thanks to our sponsors and participants, and to our incredible volunteers!
Check out a few photos from this year's event!
2010 Oratorical contest winning speech
by Kamaria Coleman
Central High School
The benefits of service can best be explained in a quote form Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which states that anybody can be great because anybody can serve - one only needs a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love. A blueprint is an exact detailed plan. My blueprint for service will be to create free after-school programs in Memphis. My program would be called "From Me to You" because its purpose will be to focus on the exchange of knowledge from one teen to another.
Adults would supervise the program, but teens would run it, emphasizing the fact that something good already exists in Memphis. Young people of all ages, grades, and races would be encouraged to join. "From Me to You" would be especially helpful to immigrant students in Memphis City Schools, where the number of ESL students has doubled since 2001. The diversity of students involved in the program would benefit them because they would be introduced to people and cultures that they did not previously know.
"From Me to You" would create employment opportunities for teens who would be paid to assist the adults in supervising the programs activities. The teens' experiences in the program would give them three important things they need to be successful in the future: developing their leadership skills, learning effective communication skills, and encouraging interaction with new people.
One of the most important points of "From Me to You" is its use of peer mediation and group discussion to teach teens positive ways to handle negative conflicts.
The only mandatory requirement for participation in the program would be that teens have to complete monthly community service projects at various locations around Memphis, such as the Mid-South Food Bank, homeless shelters, or even hospitals. Volunteering at these places would help students appreciate the lives they live and make them feel better about themselves because they helped others.
The ultimate goal of the "From Me to You" program is to encourage every individual involved to develop values that teach the importance of community, to embrace not reject diversity, tolerance of others different from you, promote positive thinking, and to increase social interaction between different races in Memphis City Schools.
"From Me to You" embraces the benefits of service as explained by one of the all-time great examples of service: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In closing, my blueprint for service, "From Me to You," proves that anybody can be great because anybody can serve.
2010 Day of Reflection and Service award recipients
James Marchant Wood, Jr. MIFA Meals Award
Nancy D. Ingram
E. J. Goldsmith Volunteer of the Year Award
Snow Morgan
Joe Birch Media Award
Speak Creative
MIFA Faith in Action Award
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Memphis Tennessee Stake and Memphis Tennessee North Stake
MIFA Founders Award
Sybil L. Tucker
Rabbi Harry Danziger Supervisor of Volunteers Award
Rick Finkey
MIFA Pathfinder Award
The Memphis Grizzlies
and The Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation
MIFA Meals
Eddie M. Blackwell
Juliene Campbell
Edgar Chism
Don Duke
Lula May Ellis
James Gardello
Barbara J. Golden
Katie Mae Harris
Seymour Hellman
Syrethia Jones
Vivian Jones
Paula Kelman
Willie Ester Macon
Robert Newsom
Bernice Richardson
Timothy Self
Earnestine Sellers
Nella Veksler
Helen Weiss
Herman Wilson
Annie Yanders
Long-Term Care Ombudsman
John Boevingloh
Wendy Garrison
Cynthia Lancaster
Darrelle Miller
Georgia Session
Myrna Stanback
Senior Companion
Jacqueline Newsom
Tarla Richardson
Mary Shapiro
Liretha Walker
Handyman
Calvin’s Heating & Air
Danny Travis
Emergency Services
Susan Herron
Life Skills Institute
Beverly Anderson
Reginald Johnson
Sid Johnson
Loretta McNary
Glynis Spencer
COOL (College Offers Opportunities for Life)
Lillian Bolden
Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church and Pastor Artis Royal
Development
The Links, Inc. Memphis Chapter
Junior League of Memphis
Renita Lemons
Karen McClarty
Wendy McCrory
Gail Murray
Alison and Lee Price
Jerry Roach
Special Events & Volunteers
A. S. Barboro
Brothers About Change
Yvonne Owens
Hank Word
Human Resources
Agnes Pokrandt