PHILADELPHIA (Jan. 14, 2011) – Though Jan. 17 kicks off the first week of the spring 2011 semester at Saint Joseph’s University, no classes will be held Monday. Instead, student-athletes and faculty will come together in service to others as part of SJU’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration. The 2011 holiday marks the 25th anniversary of the holiday’s national observance – it was first officially celebrated on Jan. 18, 1986.

Each year, SJU hosts the day of service and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration in memory of the civil rights leader and his commitment to serving others. While over 250 members of SJU’s athletic teams leave campus to take part in the day of service, members of SJU and the surrounding communities are invited to celebrate the holiday in the Michael J. Hagan '85 Arena, formerly known as Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, where decades earlier on Oct. 26, 1967, King addressed 3,400 SJU students, faculty and community members.

The 24th annual “A Day On, Not a Day Off” birthday celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will begin at 9 a.m. with a commissioning ceremony led by Don DiJulia, director of athletics, and a prayer. Presented by State Representative Louise Williams Bishop, mistress of ceremonies, with James A. Bishop, Jr. as master of ceremonies, the event will feature performances by the Brockington Ensemble, Carol Jackson and the Singers, the Metropolitan Male Chorus and the Enon Baptist Church Choir. The event will end at 2 p.m.

Following the commissioning ceremony, the SJU athletes will participate at community service locations throughout the city. The men’s lacrosse team will work on clean-up at Morris Park at 66th Street and Sherwood Road while the women’s soccer team serves Our Lady of Lourdes at 63rd Street and Lancaster Avenue; the Pick Brown Foundation, at 49th Street and Kingsessing Avenue, will be helped by the baseball team.

In addition to the scheduled service events, women’s lacrosse, men’s soccer and golf, as well as men’s and women’s rowing and tennis teams will spend the day clearing litter and overgrowth from the Cynwyd Heritage Trail on Righters Ferry Road off of Belmont Avenue, where it will one day connect to the Schuylkill waterfront. The event will be partnered by PA CleanWays, and volunteers from Bryn Mawr College, the Friends of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail and Ardmore’s Friends of Linwood Park will be present.  The women’s softball team will be working the Aramark concessions stands at the Hagan Arena.

"Saint Joseph's University is delighted to share in the message and philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day," says Patty Martin, director of government and community relations at SJU. "This day will be not only a celebration of Dr. King's life, but also one devoted to serving our neighbors and the community."

SJU was recently recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as one of 115 colleges and universities nationwide to earn the 2010 Community Engagement Classification for its academic distinction, curricular engagement and “exemplary institutionalized practices of community engagement.”