A film capturing Miami University's efforts on Martin Luther King Jr. Day involving 100 volunteers at local charities has placed as a national finalist in the 2009 Martin Luther King Technology Challenge Contest.
Other finalists include Appalachian State University, Bucknell University, Kansas State University, University of South Dakota and Virginia Tech.
According to Laura Smith, community partnership coordinator for the department of community engagement and service, Miami was awarded a grant from the Ohio Campus Compact in fall 2008 to take part in the video contest.
The contest is a nationwide initiative that recognizes the campus with the most creative use of technology to document their MLK Day of Service efforts.
The Corporation for National and Community Service will award $400 to the school receiving the most votes for their video. The money will help fund the winning school's 2010 MLK Day of Service events.
Laura Smith said 2009 is the second year Miami has been an active participant in the MLK Day of Service, and organizers saw tremendous improvements in the effect the projects had on the greater Cincinnati area.
According to Laura Smith, approximately 100 students, faculty, staff and community members volunteered at nine locations including the Knolls of Oxford, the Family Resource Center, Oxford Community Choice Pantry, Serve City, American Red Cross and Living Water Ministries.
Laura Smith said she was pleased with the increased involvement on Martin Luther King Jr. Day from 2008.
"It went from 10 volunteers to 100 volunteers, which was a big deal," she said. "I was pleased how the students handled themselves. The students involved represented Miami well."
Laura Smith said she coordinated the volunteer efforts at various locations and single-handedly created the video submitted for the contest, which highlights student volunteering.
"I wanted to showcase in the video the students and their thoughts and why they wanted to participate," Laura Smith said.
The video includes footage from a Hamilton food pantry, Serve City, where 15 volunteers spent the day re-organizing the pantry and sorting donations. It also includes footage from Living Water Ministries in Hamilton where volunteers helped organize an after-school program for children.
One of the service leaders and a graduate student, Phoebe Smith, participated for the first time this year and said she would like to participate again.
Phoebe Smith volunteered at the Oxford Family Resource Center where she and several other students helped organize more than 50 garbage bags of donated clothes to be sold when the thrift store opens.
She stressed the benefit participating in community service can have on those involved. "When you get involved it helps you to realize how much of an impact you are having on other peoples lives," Phoebe Smith said.
