Some students spent Saturday working up a sweat planting trees and painting at a local elementary school to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
About 300 University students, faculty, and staff participated in the Martin Luther King Commemorative Committee Day of Service, cleaning up St. Francis Xavier Elementary in downtown Baton Rouge. The students gathered at the Union at 8 a.m. Saturday to volunteer.
The volunteers landscaped, painted door frames and cleaned classrooms to honor King’s “call to action.”
“It’s a wonderful idea [for students] to take a Saturday out of their busy schedules,” Xavier Principal Elizabeth Bellaire said. “We are very grateful to the committee and the students.”
The event was co-sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the LSU Community University Partnership and the Office of Community Development.
Dorothy Kemp, marketing junior, was a co-team leader for the event and said the team choose Xavier Elementary because of how it responded to students in need after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
“Xavier took in a lot of affected students,” Kemp said. “I got so much satisfaction last year. I wanted to do it again this year.”
Enthusiastic students planned and organized the event.
“We started planning back in October. It’s been an effort with this number of people,” Baxter Sanders, mass communication junior and co-team leader.
Along with LSU students, a group of high school students from McKinley High School also volunteered. The students who planted the donated trees were with McKinley Green, a part of Baton Rouge Green. The local nature preservation society is dedicated to promoting tree planting and improving tree care in Baton Rouge.
Many of the students said they felt proud to be honoring King.
“In the scheme of things, it is minute compared to the movement that took place,” said Heather Williams, biological sciences senior.
 
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