AMHERST — Her class in Amherst College’s Science Center over, first-year student Zalia Salley pulled up a chair at a table set up near the building’s cafe, took some of the available blue, purple, violet and white yarn, and began crocheting.

Like several others at the table, Salley was creating small, 33-square-inch granny squares that will eventually be stitched together to form a blanket to be donated to Cancer Connection.

“I do like to crochet,” Salley said. “This seems like a great way to participate in the day of service.”

On the other side of the table, sophomore Cami Nakagawa was creating her own granny squares.

“I came out of class and I saw people crocheting,” Nakagawa said, adding she has limited experience at the task. “But I love anything arts and crafts. It’s fun.”

For two hours, the crocheting put on by the Fiber Friends Colleague Resource Groups, was one of a number of both drop-in activities and other projects to sign up for as part of Amherst College’s MLK Day of Service and Action: Building the Beloved Community. The Feb. 12 event is an annual way to bring some students, faculty and staff off campus to distribute food to senior citizens at the Bangs Community Center, serve meals at Not Bread Alone, and help clean at the Amherst Survival Center.

Others were at the Keefe Campus Center to assemble gender-affirming care kits that can be provided to people to ease their gender transition, and other kits were being made for people at the Craig’s Place homeless shelter.

At Frost Library, participants created zines reflecting on King’s legacy; while at Mead Arts Museum, art was done with similar themes and there was a teach-in on how to write opinion pieces that can be published in newspapers or online.

The day was largely coordinated by Sarah Barr, the college’s director of community engagement, who did a lot of the outreach to get community organizations to invite the college’s volunteers in, as well as to take tours of the town’s famed Civil War tablets.

“We wanted to do something to recognize and advance the goals of MLK Day,” said Pawan Dhingra, the college’s interim chief equity and inclusion officer.

Dhingra said it was sensible to host as part of Black History Month, and tie into King’s notion of a beloved community and go beyond civil rights to economic justice and trying to have an impact on the vulnerable and raise their voices.

There were also faculty-led discussions about King’s critique of racial capitalism and his Beyond Vietnam War speech.

“We’re trying to get a fuller picture,” Dhingra said. “One of the internal goals is bringing the whole community together.”

The hope is this will be a continuing effort, though it is an understandably big lift.

The efforts to get all on campus to actively engage follows the Longest Table event, held at the Inn on Boltwood the day after the King holiday in January, that brought people to talk about about what social justice means over a dinner.

The Fiber Friends last semester donated three blankets, each about 5 feet long, to Cancer Connection, said Kate Wesolowski, human resources engagement and communications coordinator, who leads the group.

Su Delguercio, a women’s soccer coach, stayed for a time. “I’ve heard wonderful things about Fiber Friends,” Delguercio said. “It worked out that I had this time open, so I just dropped in.”

Katherine Caughlin, reserve supervisor at Frost Library, said she was spending about 20 minutes per square.

“It takes a little bit to get started, but when you get the concept down, it’s pretty easy,” Caughlin said, adding that some first timers had come by to participate in the crocheting. “A few of us are good teachers.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.