In Liverpool, service and learning honor Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Volunteers made hundreds of sandwiches to help the Samaritan Center in downtown Syracuse feed their hungry neighbors.

The children and adults of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Liverpool came together on Monday to honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with service and learning. Despite frigid weather, more than thirty people showed up to participate. Families read books together about Dr. King, children learned how to bake communion bread, and everyone got a chance to be part of a variety of service projects.

Together they made over 200 sandwiches that will be given out through the Samaritan Center in Syracuse. They also made 93 warm fleece scarves and decorated dozens of valentines and cookies that will be distributed to Samaritan Center guests.

“God’s presence was in that room,” says Sue Straub, a member of St. Matthew’s and one of the event organizers. “You could feel the love being put into each handmade scarf, homemade valentine, or sprinkle on a cookie. It was not lost on us that the below-zero temperatures outside made our work that much more important. Hopefully  the love and warmth we felt that day was carried to the Samaritan Center.”

Molly A. learns about the March on Washington during the MLK Day of Service and Learning at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Liverpool.

The event is an annual tradition at St. Matthew’s. Many of the children that attend have never experienced MLK Day as simply a day off from school. “They do not know any other way to celebrate MLK than by being at church learning and creating with others,” says Straub.

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