For the Greater Glory of Penicillin

What are you doing for others?

Martin Luther King, Jr. once used those six words as a challenge to a people, a command to improve life for oneself and others through service.

Today, which would have been King’s 81st birthday, these words are more important than ever.

The nation is fighting two wars, recovering from economic disaster and losing hope in the leader it believed would turn it all around. It’s a time when folks ought to be looking out for No. 1, and the best way to do that is by looking out for everyone else.

You never know how it might come back to help you in the end.

For example:

There was once a poor Scottish farmer named Fleming who saved a young child from drowning in a nearby bog. The boy’s father, a nobleman, was so grateful that he offered to send the farmer’s own son to school for the best education available.

The farmer’s son grew up to become Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin. The nobleman’s son’s life was saved from pneumonia because of Penicillin.

Oh, and the nobleman’s son grew up to become Sir Winston Churchill.

Incredible story, right?

Too bad it’s not true. It’s nothing more than an entertaining e-mail forward my mother sent me recently. The moral of the story is a worthwhile one, especially today – the MLK Jr. Day of Service.

Here at Penn State, students are lining up for service projects across campus and the area. On volunteer.psu.edu, every volunteer position is filled up.

That doesn’t mean spots are not open.

Students interested in participating in a number of service activities should sign up in Heritage Hall between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Volunteers will receive a free breakfast, T-shirt and lunch.

You could be improving the Arboretum at Penn State or the Columbus Chapel in Boalsburg.

You might not be saving the life of the next Winston Churchill, but you’ll be doing some good for yourself and your neighbors.

You could do it because you’re selfless.

Or you could do it in case you need the Penicillin someday.