Gandhi's message

200 students celebrate Gandhi day of Service

Focusing on community service, more than 200 University students and others participated in the second annual Gandhi Day of Service on Saturday.

Sponsored by the Indian American Student Association and Project SERVE, the event commemorated the life of India's late Mahatma Gandhi and carried on his legacy of non-violent political expression and community activism.

"On this day, you can reclaim (Gandhi's) words for your own ... we not only honor his life, but we honor his deeds," said E. Royster Harper, dean of students, in a speech given on the Diag prior to the community service events held at 25 sites in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Metro Detroit.

Vijay Prasad, the event's featured speaker and professor at Connecticut's Trinity College, spoke on Gandhi's legacy and American civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King, Jr.

"If we don't keep the memory of Gandhi and Dr. King alive, then we have participated in the extermination of non-violence," Prasad said.

Acting on Gandhi's words is more important than believing in them, Prasad said. The Day of Service is "a better memorial (to Gandhi) than a statue."

After the speeches, participants went to assigned community service sites.

At Arbor Hospice, Day of Service participants planted fields of daffodils while others did landscaping work at the Huron Services for Youth.

"Gandhi did a great thing and what we can do is give back to our community," said Palak Sheth, an LSA first-year student.

Another group helped out at Knit Wits, a project that takes scraps of polar fleece material and makes them into warm clothing for the homeless. Others accompanied a nursing home to the Detroit Zoo. At another nursing home, participants set up a bingo game for patients.

"Service is a way of all of us to connect with others; to break down the differences; to see how alike we all really are," said Diag speaker David Waterhouse, co-director of Project SERVE.

The Gandhi Day of Service started last year - 50 years after Gandhi's assassination in New Delhi, India. During last year's ceremony, participants dedicated a plaque placed next to a newly planted tree on the Diag outside the Shapiro Undergraduate.

This year's theme was based around a Gandhi quotation: "Our ability to reach unity and diversity will be the beauty and test of our civilization."

"I think this quote is very fitting," said LSA senior Sonia Mathew, volunteer coordinator.

Next year, the event will have a more national scope. Between 20 and 50 colleges and universities are expected to hold similar service projects the same weekend, said LSA Sophomore Vikram Sarma, the national coordinator of the National Gandhi Day of Service.

"By bringing schools together on the same weekend, we hope to get students to start thinking about issues globally while engaging locally in service," Sarma said.

"They are using what we have done (at the University) as a model," Mathew said.

Schools planning to participate next October include Harvard University, Stanford University, University of North Carolina, University of California at Berkeley, University of Oregon and all of the Big Ten schools, Sarma said.

"...we not only honor his life, but we honor his deeds."

dean of

students

SARA SCHENCK/Daily Business student Ryan Buell (left) sews mittens for 'Knit Wits' as part of the Gandhi Day of service. The

winter accessories will be given to those in need of clothing during the winter months.

10-12-98