As part of nationwide activities surrounding the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, Troy University students, faculty and staff will take part in community service projects in Pike County on Saturday.

The University’s second “Care for the Community Day of Service” will run from 8:30 a.m. to noon and will focus on projects benefiting Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Boys and Girls clubs, Noble Manor Assisted Living facility, Pike Pioneer Museum, Habitat for Humanity and beautification efforts at Centennial Park.

Miss Troy University 2012, KeLeigh Edwards, will be making small care packages with the children at the Boys and Girls Club of Pike and Surrounding Counties on Saturday. Edwards said the packages would be used for the university’s “Troy for Troops” program, and she’ll also be talking to the club kids about the importance of volunteering.

“Many kids don’t know where, or how, they can help,” Edwards shared. “You don’t have to raise tons of money or do something big. There are little things they can do at their age.”

Edwards is a 19-year-old elementary education major from Smith Station. She said she didn’t realize the importance of working to help others until she visited Mexico and volunteered at an orphanage when she was 12.

“Until then, I didn’t realize how blessed I was,” Edwards said. “Volunteering makes a difference in my life, as well as in the lives of others. We are here, not just for ourselves, but to do things for others.”

Edwards said that she feels if kids begin volunteering at an early age, they are more likely to continue serving the community throughout their lives.

“Sometimes it means just spending a little time with others. You can make cards for veterans, or help clean up the community. Community service can also be within your own family, helping your grandmother do something,” Edwards said.

More than 200 Troy students took part in the university’s inaugural day of service in September in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Students logged almost 800 hours of community service combined, that day.

For more information about the “Care for the Community Day of Service,” contact Jonathan T. Cellon, coordinator of student learning initiatives, at (334) 808-6349.