On May 6, more than 350 Hopkins alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and friends dusted off their work gloves and spent hours in book banks and soup kitchens to support their communities. The volunteers participated in the fifth annual Johns Hopkins in Action day of service, working with 13 non-profits serving the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., communities. Teams ranging from a handful of people to dozens prepared care packages for families in need, sorted food at local food banks, cleared waterways, and took care of more than 100 trees.
In Washington, D.C., volunteers joined in sorting food for the Capital Food Bank, providing food and clothing to families through Martha’s Table, and fighting poverty with A Wider Circle. In Baltimore, volunteers at Movable Feast prepared 10,000 meals for individuals who have critical or life-threatening illnesses in and around the city. Others worked at the annual Packard Center Fiesta 5K downtown, which raised more than $262,500 toward ALS research. This year, participants also donated hundreds of items to Paul’s Place, which provides a host of services to disadvantaged populations in the city.
Volunteers also sorted books for low-income families and schools at the Maryland Book Bank and Bookmobile. Among those was Joanne Oh, the Sylvia and Hans Jeans Scholar in the Krieger School who interns at the book bank.
“It was encouraging to see so many people come out to support the Maryland Book Bank,” she says. “I think it’s amazing how many books their new bookmobile has distributed in a relatively short amount of time, and I look forward to seeing the program grow.”
Over the past five years, Johns Hopkins in Action has hosted more than 30 events across the globe, giving Hopkins parents, alumni, and friends opportunities to make an immediate impact on their local communities while supporting the priorities of the Rising to the Challenge campaign.
Check out the Facebook photo gallery of highlights from this year’s Johns Hopkins in Action.
Topics: Alumni, Faculty and Staff, Strengthening Partnerships