Roughly 600 students gathered in the Ohio Union Monday to participate in student cohort Pay It Forward's annual MLK Jr. Day of Service. Credit: Courtesy of Madi Barnes

Roughly 600 students gathered in the Ohio Union Monday to participate in student cohort Pay It Forward’s annual MLK Jr. Day of Service. Credit: Courtesy of Madi Barnes

In collaboration with over 20 nonprofit community partners, approximately 600 students gathered at the Ohio Union Monday to participate in community service in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

Pay It Forward, a student cohort within Ohio State’s Office of Student Life, has hosted the MLK Jr. Day of Service for roughly 25 years as part of its mission to organize service opportunities for other students, said Madi Barnes, the office’s coordinator for community and civic engagement. Over the course of several hours, student volunteers were either bussed out to serve onsite with the event’s nonprofit partners or remained in the Union to work on service projects, according to the office’s MLK Jr. Day of Service webpage.

“Dr. King once said, ‘The time is always right to do the right thing,’” the office’s webpage states. “What better way to honor that sentiment than by making a day off a day on?”

Participating students worked with local nonprofits dedicated to tackling community issues like unhoused citizen support, mental health advocacy and healthy food access, according to the office’s webpage. For example, Barnes said some students packed hygiene kits to be donated to The Reeb Center, while others packed snack bags for Feed The Kids Columbus. 

Over 20 local nonprofits collaborated with students who attended Pay It Forward's MLK Jr. Day of Service Monday, including Feed The Kids Columbus, with which student volunteers packed snack bags. Credit: Courtesy of Madi Barnes

Over 20 local nonprofits collaborated with students who attended Pay It Forward’s MLK Jr. Day of Service Monday, including Feed The Kids Columbus, with which student volunteers packed snack bags. Credit: Courtesy of Madi Barnes

Though MLK Jr. Day is a national service holiday, Barnes said it’s especially important for Ohio State to participate because of the university’s established motto: “Education for citizenship.”

“I think that having students go out and do service and learn through doing really fits in with that mission, and helping students to see themselves as citizens of the world and thinking about how they can make their communities a better place, which is really just very much in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and of Dr. King’s legacy,” Barnes said.

Generally speaking, Barnes said Pay It Forward is all about making service more accessible for Ohio State students.

“We try to take away all the logistics and guesswork out of all our service experiences,” Barnes said. “That way, students are just getting connected with nonprofits and learning a little bit more about their community.”

With Monday marking the Presidential Inauguration and Ohio State’s performance in the College Football Playoff National Championship, Barnes said it can be easy to devote less attention to a holiday like MLK Jr. Day. Nevertheless, she encourages students to treat this service holiday as “an invitation to give back to [their] community.”

“We know that students in general are busy,” Barnes said. “Obviously, a lot of students are really excited about the football game and are planning for that and getting their plans ready even as early as [Monday] morning, when the event was going on. We know that, but just know that Pay It Forward is here to make sure that students have those opportunities to serve.”

More information about Pay It Forward can be found on the cohort’s university webpage or its Instagram account.