At least part of the goal behind the Washington State University Vancouver-organized Martin Luther King Jr. “Day-on” was instilling a sense of service in volunteers to last a year or, better yet, a lifetime.

Did it work?

“Oh, absolutely,” said Jennifer Blechschmidt of Ridgefield, who wrote, “Get well,” on the front cover of a card that will be delivered to a child at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland.

Sitting at a round table inside the Firstenburg Student Commons with Blechschmidt was her husband, Brett, and daughters Bailee, 12, and 8-year-old Lauren.

Brielle Lindsay, 13, Bailee’s friend, joined the Blechschmidts for the volunteering expedition on Monday, the 81st anniversary of King’s birthday.

“We’re just trying to teach our kids about giving back to the community,” Jennifer Blechschmidt said.

More than 110 volunteers pre-registered for WSUV’s first annual MLK-inspired service day. Projects included the homemade comfort cards, tree planting with the Water Resources Education Center, meal service with Share Vancouver and work with the Clark Public Utilities Stream Team.

Volunteers received coffee and doughnuts and sat in on a 25-minute address from Thabiti Lewis, English professor and author of the forthcoming “Ballers of the New School: Race, Sport and the American Culture.”

Lewis said the work started by King and the Civil Rights movement remains unfinished.

“We are not post-race yet, but your prophetic voice can get us there,” Lewis said. “We have a responsibility to ourselves — reach beyond King’s dream by living, planning and building your own dream.”

He called “being radical being normal.”

“We are all agents of change,” Lewis said. “Every act does count.”

Organizations throughout Clark County held service days, including the Human Services Council and the Kaiser Permanente health care system.

Kaiser provided about 20 volunteers who worked at the Free Clinic of Southwest Washington, 4100 Plomondon St. in Vancouver.

The clinic is usually open Monday mornings, but the Kaiser volunteers put in a full-day schedule. Vision patients, in particular, benefitted from the Kaiser participation.

“We had 48 vision patients, and Monday is not a day we would have been able to offer them care,” said Barbe West, executive director of the clinic.

In an outdoor activity, members of the WSU Vancouver contingent planted trees on the bank of the Columbia River under the supervision of Water Resources Education Center employees.

The goal is to use the trees to help stabilize the bank, set beneath the Renaissance Trail, said Bev Walker, an educator at the center.

“We started with over 500 and had them planted within the first hour,” Walker said.

Michael Tucker, 18, and Jennifer Peterson, 17, were among the volunteers at the site who planted, by day’s end, more than 1,000 red osier and dogwood willows.

Tucker, a student at Clark College, and Peterson, who attends Battle Ground’s Summit View High School, both said their day off was better spent helping out than sitting on the couch.

“I usually sit at home doing nothing, so I might as well use my day productively,” Peterson said.

The two teens wore blue T-shirts distributed by the WSU Vancouver office of Student Diversity, complete with a quote attributed to King written across the back.

“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve,” it read.

“I didn’t do it because it’s MLK Day,” Tucker said. “They made an easy opportunity for me.”

But, Peterson jumped in, correcting her companion, “Knowing it’s MLK Day makes it that much more special.”

And that’s the sentiment Bola Majekobaje, the event’s lead organizer, hoped to instill.

“The goal is for this event to be a symbol of a year of service, and a lifetime of service,” Majekobaje said.

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